Sofant Technologies believes it has mastered a more energy-efficient method for controlling phased antenna arrays, addressing a pain-point in next-generation communications settings such as 5G.
A year into the deployment of 5G mobile broadband and the industry is under fire from critics who say the technology is not stable enough.
Hypothetically capable of speeds of between 130 to 240 Mbps, 5G was supposed to pave the way for a whole host of enterprise and consumer applications, including everything from virtual reality to remote medical diagnostics. But performance issues have undermined its reputation. Some operators struggle to match advertised speeds and coverage, leaving customers with a half-baked product.
Heat is one of the biggest engineering challenges affecting 5G’s stability.
While a single high frequency 5G transmission point can theoretically hold hundreds of antennas, conventional technology consumes a massive amount of power and heat, meaning ventilation must be used to cool 5G infrastructure.
University of Edinburgh’s Sofant Technologies believes its technology can help solve the problem by reducing energy consumption by more than 70% in high frequency 5G systems and non-5G communications systems like satellite broadband.
Sofant is working on smart antenna products that exploit microelectromechanical systems to change the phase of a radio signal that is transmitted simultaneously by different antennas, using a technology which is referred to as radio frequency microelectromechanical systems (RF-Mems).
Conventional array antennas use semiconductor-based phase switches, however Sofant says RF-Mems will be lower cost and more power efficient, helping to deploy 5G networks at higher frequencies which offer more available bandwidth.
Wither explained the function of array antennas by using an analogy between an incandescent light bulb and a torch: “At the relatively low radio frequencies which are used today for mobile communications the antennas are designed to cover a large area much like a single old-school light bulb placed in the centre of a room which spreads light evenly in all directions.
“At high frequencies, radio signals do not travel as far so you have to design an antenna which directs the radio signal much like a torch directs light energy where it is pointed. This is the only way to increase the range of high frequency 5G or satellite communication systems.
“Sofant is using RF-Mems to displace conventional semiconductor approaches in this application to manipulate the phasing of a radio signal resulting in a highly efficient system.”
Others have attempted to commercialise RF-Mems phased array antennas previously, but Sofant claims the industry is still waiting for a product that is both robust and cost-efficient.
The spinout’s development team recently achieved 25 billion operating cycles on its production prototypes without suffering any reliability problems, and now expects to reach the market within the next two years.
To help increase its profit margins, Sofant Technologies has implemented a fabless manufacturing process, outsourcing the production of its designs to a high-volume foundry partner.
Its design was spearheaded by co-founders including chief scientific officer and vice-president of engineering Nakul Haridas, who completed a PhD at University of Edinburgh from 2006 until 2009.
Wither did not join the team until 2016, however he stresses that early venture investors, such as Edinburgh’s Old College Capital, were integral to getting Sofant off the ground.
Sofant has garnered at least $6.5m in venture funding since 2013 and is currently working to top up its equity capital with series A-plus funding with a view of scaling up its business model.
Wither observed: “[As well as Old College Capital], we also have the Scottish Investment Bank as an investor in the business.
“I think those two funds were really critical in helping the company get the initial financial support it needed.
“We did a lot of the early development work at the Scottish Microelectronics Centre, which is at University of Edinburgh, so the Scottish ecosystem was a really important entry point for us in terms of how we developed the technology at the outset.”
EMV Capital is among the shareholders in Sofant Technologies having put up an undisclosed sum for the business in July last year.
The company has since been acquired by commercialisation firm NetScientific, which has appointed EMV’s old chief executive officer Ilian Iliev with the aim of driving its portfolio forward.
Iliev cited Sofant as a fine example of cost reduction in the hardware space, pointing to its fabless production contracts and ability to monetise its antennae through multiple sources.
Sofant had attracted interest from commercial clients and public innovation boards, Iliev noted, and there was further scope to monetise its technology through joint product development agreements with corporates.
Iliev continued: “Essentially, Sofant’s reliance on Mems technology and the fabless approach, along with its range of funding sources, enables it to take a product to market at an order-of-magnitude lower capital cost to investors compared to their competitors.
“From our perspective this a good example of the next generation of hardware companies, deploying capital for efficient ways of growth.
“Of course, this is a more attractive proposition for NetScientific and our investors, much more so than some of the bottomless pits you see on the west coast of the US.”
Iliev thinks Scotland is a solid place to do business and has emphasised its international links to both Europe and the US, in addition to its highly-skilled workforce.
However, he urged investors to push for Scottish founders to enter foreign markets earlier in the growth cycle.
Iliev concluded: “We have been engaged with tracking the Scottish innovation ecosystem for quite some time, not only in industrial high-tech, but also in energy and healthcare, and a number of other fields.
“We see it as a very dynamic and flexible system, a combination of Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Investment Bank and other support measures of a fairly tight-knit community.
“Because of this they punch above their weight, but it is important for companies in Scotland’s ecosystem to access scale-up and internationalisation partners at an earlier stage, to capture the benefits of ecosystems outside of Scotland.”