Eridan exists because of the amazing people working here, so we will be introducing you to them. Doug Wang is a Director of Business Development at Eridan and this is his journey.

Doug Wang

When did you start at Eridan and how did you find out about the company? Any previous experiences?

I started at Eridan right around a year ago. I originally found out about Eridan during a sidebar conversation I had with Dr. Earl McCune at MTT-IMS back in 2019. Earl had been extolling the virtues of Direct Polar and 16K QAM to me and I was fascinated by the technology at the time. Little did I know that things would come full circle around 3 years later when a recruiter reached out to me to join the company.

How would you describe Eridan? Did anything surprise you once you started working here?

I hope this doesn’t come off as sounding contrived, but I would describe Eridan as a true technology disruptor. Prior to joining Eridan, I was working at a RF test & measurement company focused on business development for RF semiconductor test. My role allowed me to gain exposure to a very broad spectrum of what was going on in the industry. I would say there have been countless start-ups in this industry which work on what I would describe as incremental technology improvements. These can range from things like designing their IC with a modified node/semiconductor process or applying a new type of DSP technique. When I saw what Eridan was doing with polar and switch-mode operation on Gallium Nitride, it was like nothing I had seen in industry and I knew that I had to be a part of this technology.

As far as surprises go, I personally was blown away by what Eridan has been able to achieve across our cross-functional engineering disciplines. I originally joined Eridan under the premise that we would be focused almost exclusively on polar GaN RFFE devices. I did not realize that Eridan also has a broad breadth of expertise in designing complementary CMOS RFIC devices to pair with our GaN. Not only that, but we also have world class FPGA and Systems teams that are able to pull everything together. When you really think about it, it’s quite remarkable what we have been able to achieve with such scarce resources.

What future do you see with Eridan?

No one can really say which direction their career will go, but I predict my future with Eridan will be focused on scaling up our business development team. Ideally I envision leading Eridan to bring our direct polar technology into other industries such as SATCOM, Industrial IoT, EW/Radar, and eventually the cellular handset. We’re laser focused on the OpenRAN small cell market at the moment, but that really is just the tip of the iceberg for our technology.

Any difficult aspects about Eridan? And on the flip side, what’s the most memorable moment at Eridan so far?

As with any fast-paced startup in this industry, there’s a constant pressure to innovate and keep up with the rapidly evolving wireless standards. I’d say one of the biggest challenges for Eridan is being able to find individuals who not only have strong technical aptitude, but also are voracious thinkers who aren’t intimidated to challenge the status quo. I’ll add my shameless plug here for folks who resonate with what I just said to go check out our website for our job openings ;). 

My most memorable moment at Eridan so far has been the mini-parties we have whenever we hit a major technical milestone. These parties are a great way to blow off some steam and usually include bottles of Sangiovese personally vinified by our CEO (who makes the wine out of his garage in San Francisco during his spare time).

How do you spend your time outside of Eridan?

I really enjoy playing volleyball especially in the summers when I can get out on the beach. I originally started playing competitively in high school and later joined a team to play in national tournaments during the summers. Nowadays I usually try to play once a week in recreational leagues around town.