Antenna startup enhances wireless charging
The company has raised $5 million to date and is looking to raise more funds in 2016 to support expansion of its products and od its operations to more locations.
NuCurrent’s differentiation is that it applies multi-path loops for wireless charging antennas typically sometimes embedded in multilayer printed circuit boards (PCBs). This is done to increase surface area and minimize equivalent series resistance, which in turn raises the quality factor (Q-factor) of the antennas. Having started back in 2009 the company has developed a significant intellectual property with 20 patents granted and 50 applied for.
Jacob Babcock, co-founder and CEO of NuCurrent, said that the company’s technology produces Q-factors that are 20 to 60 percent higher than competitors’ antennas operating at the same distance and frequency. The company’s ac-to-ac efficiency of energy transfer is typically above 90 percent although end-to-end efficiency will also include dc-to-ac and ac-to-dc converters.
“With multiple conductive paths there is also complexity, mutual inductance and coupling and so on. We have very good in-house modelling software which enables us to develop custom antenna optimized for an application,” Babcock told eeNews Europe.
Babcock added that many customers are interested in a complete modular solutions rather than just an antenna and the company has started developing such solutions. Other companies want to control their own manufacturing leading to some technology licensing deals. “But primarily our business model is a product sales business model,” he said.
NuCurrent produces antenna that are compliant across Wireless Power Consortium (Qi) and AirFuel Alliance (formally PMA and A4WP standards). The company works with electronic device OEMs and integrators to custom-design, rapid-prototype and integrate high Q-factor antennas and modules for a broad range of applications. In 2012, NuCurrent introduced its wireless power antennas in both the infrastructure (i.e. walls, tables) and consumer electronics (phones, tablets, etc.) market segments.
NuCurrent also received about $3.5 million in a Series A round of funding and a strategic partnership and investment from Molex Inc. (Lisle, Illinois), a manufacturer of electronic, electrical and fiber optic interconnection systems. NuCurrent has 13 staff at present.
“We are raising more money and we are already selling product,” said Babcock. “We expect to double headcount over the next year.”
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