Licensing opportunities
Electronics
Our licensing opportunities tagged with Electronics are shown below.
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Multi-level phase device
This technology comprises a device geometry, based on the flexoelectric-optic effect in a chiral nematic liquid crystal, which is capable of linear multi-level phase modulation and frame rates in excess of several kHz. The multi-level phase modulation from these devices has potential for application in holographic projectors, optical correlators and adaptive optics.
By employing flexoelectric devices one can now modulatethe phase of light at frame rates well above those detected by the eye, thereby enabling improvement of image quality in holographic projectors as well as the implementation of real-time adaptive opthalmic imaging for high resolution diagnosis of retinal disease.
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Printable Inks based on Layered Nanomaterials
Printable electronics have to date been limited by the lower electron mobility and hence operation speed of organic materials compared to silicon, the production cost, processing requirements and performance of metal or carbon nanoparticle-based inks. Current generation transparent and electrically conductive layers are stiff and brittle and hence limit flexible electronic applications.
Professor Andrea Ferrari and his team in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge have developed a novel method of ink production based on layered nanomaterials such as graphene. This technology overcomes the issues of current printable inks and can be printed by various methods on flexible substrates.
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Multi-service Digital Distributed Antenna System
Researchers from the University of Cambridge have developed a digital signal processing solution which overcomes the current limitations of in-building wireless signal propagation for advanced services such as 3G and LTE. Most large buildings requiring improved in-building radio coverage, such as shopping malls and airports, are installing Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) which require dedicated high-specification infrastructure such as optical fibre, high linearity and dynamic range, and suffer from high energy consumption. Femtocells provide an alternative solution which avoid some of these issues but are still restricted to single service and fixed configurations.
The proposed digital DAS (DDAS) solution substantially compresses the data signals thereby reducing the infrastructure bandwidth requirement ultimately towards use of copper rather than optical fibre and also allowing multiple services (voice, data, video…) to be combined onto a single infrastructure. The use of DDAS also enables more flexible architectures, including per-service or per stream reconfigurability and remote service distribution for multiple buildings over a common infrastructure. This would allow easier upgrade and secure maintenance using software rather than the current hardware approach.
We are now looking for industrial partners to help us develop this technology further to exploit the exciting market opportunity which this technology presents.
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Enhanced Coverage Passive RFID Tracking System
Typically there is a trade-off to be made between the cost of an RFID tracking system and the coverage and tag locating capabilities which can be achieved. Most systems capable of reading tags with near 100% success rate over distances up to 100m require active tags to achieve their long range and high resolution location accuracy. Alternatively passive systems with cheaper tags, are limited to a reliable tag detection range of only a few meters.
Now researchers from the University of Cambridge have developed a system using passive tags and advanced signal processing which can achieve comparable tag detection performance to active tags at a lower cost point. This enables near 100% read success and has been demonstrated for asset tracking over a 20x20m2 area, although the system can readily scale to larger areas. The researchers have also demonstrated the potential of the technique for accurate real time location capabilities.
This technology is protected by patent applications in US, Europe and China, and is now ready for pilot commercial applications such as inventory and asset tracking and monitoring patient movement in hospitals.
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Novel Energy Harvester
In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in vibration energy harvesting, especially to enable self-powered wireless sensor networks for structural health monitoring. While some early commercial solutions have witnessed increasing deployments, two of the key technical limitations still stubbornly persist; namely, the low power density relative to conventional power supplies and the mis-match between the narrow operational frequency bandwidth of conventional energy harvesters and the wideband nature of real vibrations. Researchers at the University are addressing these issues through employing vibration energy harvesting based on auto parametric resonance rather than the conventional approach of using the fundamental mode of resonance.
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Protection for normally on SiC JFET
With the increasing demand for power converters and high power densities, and Silicon (Si) is reaching its theoretical limits, Silicon Carbide (SiC) is the object of a growing interest. It possesses several advantages over Si, among which: lower on resistance and operation at higher temperatures . This makes of SiC transistors, and more generally SiC power converters , the ideal candidates for use in hybrid and electric cars. Only one type of SiC transistor is close to commercial production: the Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET). However, it is a normally- on device, i.e. it needs a negative voltage to be turned off. Therefore it needs protection when used in a circuit, as a fault in the driver power supply would turn on the JFET and possibly lead to short-circuits .
The invention proposes a way of solving the problem while retaining the advantages of using a SiC transistor. Therefore it does not add switching losses and does not impede the high temperature operation. -
Low cost Dense WDM transmission
Standard telecom WDM networks require tight alignment of transmitter wavelength and receiver filter to ensure adequate performance (signal-to-noise ratio) – especially as data rates increase. To avoid the effects of laser wavelength thermal drift, high-performance transmitters utilise expensive Thermo-Electric Coolers (TECs) to hold the laser temperature steady, or wavelength lockers based on filters and feedback loops, with their associated increased capital and operating costs.
Our technology enables the use of lower cost uncooled transmitters without sacrificing channel spacing, by utilising electrical signal processing at the receiver based on MIMO techniques. 100 Gb/s transmission has been experimentally demonstrated with an 8 channel 100GHz grid, with the associated simulations supporting predictions of scalability to higher channel counts and bitrates.
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High Density Carbon Nanotube Arrays
A method for forming small catalytic nanoparticles at high densities over a substrate to serve as nuclei for the growth of carbon nanotubes (or CNTs). The inventors have experimentally grown CNTs with densities of 5•1012 cm-12 (five times greater than the closest rival technology), and expect that arrays of CNTs with densities of 1013 cm-2 or higher can be grown using this method.
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JBIG-KIT Software Library
JBIG-KIT is a software implementation of the JBIG1 data compression standard (ITU-T T.82), which was designed for bi-level high-resolution image data such as scanned documents. This library is available in portable C code and has been widely used in fax products, printer firmware and drivers, and document management systems. The package includes a variant implementation of just the ITU-T T.85 profile, with memory management optimized for embedded and fax applications.