New Technology to Enhance Reception Capacity of Mobile Devices

• Posted: Friday, March 03, 2006
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• Author: pradhana
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• Filed under: Miscellaneous

Advance Nanotech, Inc., the premier provider of financing and support services to expedite the commercialization of disruptive nanotechnology discoveries, in partnership with Alps Electric Company Limited and Dow Corning Corporation, today announced financing for RANTED (Re-orientable Aligned Carbon NanotubE Dielectric Devices), a new research project based out of the Center for Advanced Photonics and Electronics (CAPE) at the University of Cambridge, UK. The RANTED project is the latest milestone in the CAPE alliance's collaborative mission to invent and develop through multidisciplinary research, materials, processes, components and systems.

"The RANTED project is an excellent example of collaboration at work between industry leaders at the CAPE center," said Prof. Bill Crossland. "Each of our partners brings a host of unparalleled expertise to the table: Alps Electric in optoelectronic components, Dow Corning in materials research, and Advance Nanotech in nanotechnology. This is one of many success stories to come." The RANTED project will explore a new class of materials with unique dielectric properties in the microwave range, suitable for applications in mobile phones and other wireless systems. The successful development of these novel materials will enable new wireless antenna technologies that substantially reduce the footprint required for multiple antenna systems, while simultaneously reducing background noise and increasing the capacity of mobile wireless systems. The RANTED project will deliver proof-of-concept demonstrators after two years, and the development of components ready for market applications will begin after three years.

"By 2009 mobile devices will be required to support a myriad of wireless frequencies and protocols, including 2, 2.5 and 3G telephony, Bluetooth (802.15), WiFi (802.11), ZigBee (802.15.4) and DVB-H (mobile TV) in order to be competitive. This poses a significant challenge to designers and developers of RF antennas and subsystems," said Dr. Peter L. Gammel, Senior Vice President, Electronics at Advance Nanotech. "The RANTED technology will demonstrate antennas which support all these applications in a compact footprint with improved performance."

In addition to mobile phones and wireless devices, the novel materials developed by the RANTED project are expected to benefit a broad range of microwave applications: from medical imaging to antennas, filters, receivers and transmitters for microwave and terahertz systems; from radar to satellite and mobile phone applications.

"Together Advance Nanotech, Alps, Dow Corning Corporation and the University of Cambridge are working to define the future and set the industry agenda for the convergence of photonic and electronic technology," said Magnus Gittins, CEO of Advance Nanotech. "The RANTED project represents a significant step in our progress towards these goals. We look forward to working with our partners moving forward to ensure that we achieve our mission together."

The investment in RANTED was made in partnership with Alps Electric Company Limited, Dow Corning and the CAPE Center at the University of Cambridge. CAPE is part of the Department of Engineering of the University of Cambridge and forms an integrated Research Facility for Electrical Engineering with a staff of 20 academics, 70 post-doctoral researchers and 170 research students.

CAPE is funded by Advance Nanotech, Alps Electric Company Limited, Dow Corning Corporation plc, and is designed to encourage research activities to proceed to development and exploitation in close collaboration with industry. The program enables designers and engineers within academia and industry to benefit from the burgeoning developments in advanced photonics and electronics. In the past five years, numerous patents have been filed and ten spin-out companies have been formed from projects which began in the Electrical Division within the Department of Engineering of the University of Cambridge.

Advance Nanotech is currently funding 21 portfolio companies in the electronics, biopharma, and materials industries. The firm provides services ranging from funding, to human capital and research equipment essential to ensuring that the most promising companies can accelerate the path to rapid commercialization. In this way, investor exposure to any particular technology is mitigated with Advance Nanotech retaining the option to increase investment in those technologies that successfully mature. (ABI Research Wireless 02/28/06)

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