International Rectifier founder Eric Lidow dies at 100
Eric Lidow, a pioneer in power electronics and the founder of International Rectifier, has died at the age of 100.
Lidow was born in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1912. He was educated as an electrical engineer in Berlin during the rise of the Third Reich.
In 1939, after completing his Masters Degree from the Technical University of Berlin, Lidow moved to Los Angeles and started his first semiconductor company, Selenium Corporation of America, using borrowed equipment and working in the back of a photo studio.
After the company was sold in 1946, Lidow started his second power electronics company, International Rectifier, where he was ceo until 1995 and chairman of the board until 2008.
