Category: Freevolt

Innovate UK funded project enabled Drayson Technologies to develop “Plug-n-Play” reference designs of its Freevolt™ radio frequency energy harvesting technology, delivering 3x more power for biometric smart card applications in secure access, cryptocurrency, healthcare and finance.

Drayson Technologies today announces the completion its Smart Grant project, funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency. During the 6-month project, the business received over £112,000 of funding in order to develop “Plug-n-Play” reference designs of its Freevolt™ proprietary radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting technology for smart card applications in secure access, cryptocurrency, healthcare and finance.

The Innovate UK project enabled the Drayson Technologies team to take the latest Freevolt Generation 3 solution and develop a set of standardised reference designs which integrators can use. This gives significantly reduced integration times and minimises bespoke work across multiple applications, further cementing the Company’s technology leadership position in the field of RF energy harvesting to power biometric smart cards. Furthermore, the output from this project has enabled Drayson Technologies to begin development of a new in-house design for biometric smart cards that combines third generation Freevolt technology with a novel adaptive capacitor-bank-on-card storage element (which was developed as part of the Innovate UK project), as well as a high-efficiency RF communications switching mechanism. This has unlocked new potential applications in the secure access and cryptocurrency verticals.

This R&D work not only improved energy harvesting efficiency and system designs, but has also generated new novel inventions, leading to new patent applications. The Company now owns 21 granted patents internationally within a portfolio of 17 patent families protecting the Freevolt technology and associated system blocks relevant for biometric smart card applications.

Lord (Paul) Drayson PhD FREng Chairman of Drayson Technologies said:
“We are very pleased with the results of our first InnovateUK project. The main goal was better standardisation of our biometric smart card energy harvesting technology, creating optimised, ready-to-use designs. This makes it easier for biometric smart card integrators to adopt and use Freevolt RF energy harvesting. After 6 months of work, we have 2 new baseline designs ready to use and have also created a whole host of new IP, further enabling us to support the development of fully integrated biometric smart cards with advanced features. We are now seeing new commercial applications in cryptocurrency wallets, health passports and security access. We would like to thank Innovate UK and UKRI for their support throughout this project.”

Following almost a decade of development, the main benefit of Drayson Technologies’ Freevolt RF energy harvesting technology is to provide the additional energy needed to power advanced processing and security capabilities for the latest generation of contactless biometric smart cards. This uses energy harvested directly from the card reader, without requiring changes to the existing card reader infrastructure. With 3x energy harvesting performance over competing technologies, Freevolt enables greater functionality to be built into the card, such as greater processing power to run enhanced security systems or larger, more secure, data stores.

The higher energy harvesting efficiency enables highly personal biometric data to be stored securely on the card, and not in central server databases, such as required by competing systems, which may make them vulnerable to hackers. This also addresses current privacy and GDPR concerns surrounding ID cards that use personal biometric data, such as vaccine passports, allowing users to control and retain possession of their private data.

About Drayson Technologies & Freevolt
Drayson Technologies is a UK technology company developing Freevolt energy harvesting solutions that convert radio frequency (RF) energy into usable direct current. Freevolt is an award-winning suite of proprietary, patented, and patent-pending technologies that recycle and harvest RF energy from radio transmission networks (NFC, cellular, Wi-Fi, etc.) in order to power electrical devices such as smart cards, sensors, and wearables. Biometric smart cards are the lead commercial application.

Drayson Technologies’ mission is to enable advanced smart cards that feature fraud protection and improved security without any impact on existing infrastructure or user experience.

Drayson Technologies is based in London, UK with a team of international engineers bringing a wealth of experience in RF energy harvesting and associated power and control technologies.

For more information, please visit: www.getfreevolt.com.

About Innovate UK
Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas.

We connect businesses to the partners, customers and investors that can help them turn ideas into commercially successful products and services and business growth.

We fund business and research collaborations to accelerate innovation and drive business investment into R&D. Our support is available to businesses across all economic sectors, value chains and UK regions.

Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation. For more information visit www.innovateuk.ukri.org.

DRAYSON TECHNOLOGIES SIGNS A TECHNOLOGY LICENSING AGREEMENT WITH CARDLAB FOR THE USE OF FREEVOLT WORLD LEADING ENERGY-HARVESTING TECHNOLOGY TO POWER BIOMETRIC SMARTCARD

• The licence allows CardLab to integrate Freevolt energy harvesting technology in their next generation of powered biometric smartcard, which fight credit card fraud as well as identity theft and cyber-criminal activities by protecting every transaction with the required use of the owner’s fingerprint
• Freevolt provides 2-3 times more power than has previously been available and uses existing manufacturing techniques and components, significantly increasing the speed of a secure transaction
• CardLab has a strong portfolio of biometric card solutions and is a unique “One stop shop” providing all card development and production services, bringing a card from a good idea to a card product in mass production
• CardLab has the market’s most power efficient card solutions and an outstanding card lamination capability using standard lamination equipment at temperature ranges suitable for electronic card lamination

Drayson Technologies (Europe) Limited today announces it has signed a technology licensing agreement with CardLab to integrate Freevolt energy harvesting technology into CardLab’s powered biometric smartcard solutions, in applications that include payment credit and debit cards, e-Passports, ID cards, security passes and medical information cards.

Customers are set to benefit from the partnership that will see Drayson Technologies’ personnel based in the UK working closely alongside Denmark’s CardLab to combine their respective solutions into an integrated card that unlocks a new era of smartcard security and enables cards to work in a low power reader environment.

Freevolt smartcard harvesting solutions currently outperform all other solutions on the market- providing between 2-3 times more available power for contactless transactions, which typically take less than 1 second. Drayson Technologies’ patented Freevolt technology enables a new generation of payment smartcard, e-Passports, ID cards, security passes and medical cards by harvesting additional power that provides improved security, reduced transaction times at payment and access terminals and full functionality at all readers. CardLab have over 15 years’ experience in the smartcard market and are committed to working with Drayson Technologies in rolling out biometric smartcard on a world-wide basis, powered by Freevolt technology. Freevolt uses existing manufacturing techniques and components, is compliant with the size and thickness required for existing smart and credit card standards and is ready for mass manufacture.

Gonzalo de Gisbert, Head of Product, Drayson Technologies, said:
“Fraud is increasing year on year, with enhanced securities measures inhibited by the lack of available power. Drayson Technologies can overcome this problem through its innovative Freevolt technology, built on years of experience in radio frequency harvesting. This partnership with CardLab is a fantastic validation of the impact and utility Freevolt provides, able to make fraud prevention a reality and put it in the hands of everyone.”

Frank Sandeløv, CEO, CardLab, said:
“CardLab has created card solutions to help fight fraud, identity theft, provide unique identity and simultaneous full privacy protection. A large part of such cards are based on energy harvesting solutions and until now, the available energy harvesting solutions have been unable to produce sufficient power to make cards work in all terminals. The collaboration between Drayson Technologies and CardLab changes the situation dramatically making is possible to harvest sufficient energy from all contactless terminals. After thorough testing Drayson Technologies have been selected as supplier due to its unique performance and strong IPR protection.”

Drayson Technologies has today been listed in the 2017 Tech Tour Growth 50, featuring among the next generation of Europe’s fastest growth equity-backed technology businesses. Drayson Technologies was selected in recognition of the achievement, impact and momentum of its work in the Internet of Things (IoT) space.

Tech Tour, a platform that facilitates high-tech growth companies to develop strategic relations with investors, together with Silverpeak Investment Bank and in conjunction with a selection committee of international investors, have researched and evaluated over 275 European private tech companies at a sub-one billion US dollar valuation before compiling the Tour Growth 50.

Drayson Technologies has been shortlisted in the 2017 Tech Tour Growth 50 along with other pioneering tech companies such as Soundcloud, SigFox and Darktrace. The company has developed proprietary wireless charging technology and machine learning software to create smart sensor networks that generate actionable insights to improve people’s lives and deliver value to business customers.

In September 2016 Drayson Technologies expanded to Latin America, a fast-growing technology market. Most recently, Drayson Technologies announced a partnership with Oxford University and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to deploy digital health technologies for the NHS.

Lord Drayson, Chairman and CEO of Drayson Technologies, will be gathering with CEOs of the other shortlisted companies at the annual Tech Tour Growth Forum in Geneva from March 30th – 31st where two companies will be announced as the 2017 Tech Tour Growth Award and Tech Tour Innovation Award winner.

Lord Paul Drayson, Chairman and CEO of Drayson Technologies, said:
“We are honoured to be shortlisted in the 2017 Tech Tour Growth 50, in such illustrious company. It’s testament to the pioneering work we’re carrying out in the IoT space, and we look forward to continue pushing boundaries as our technology portfolio expands into digital health applications.”

William Stevens, CEO, Tech Tour, commented:
“The billion dollar “unicorn” successes that grab our attention are just the tip of the iceberg. The Tech Tour Growth 50 puts the next layer of Europe’s high-tech, high-growth businesses in the limelight. These are Europe’s future potential unicorns – the companies with the most promise to have a global impact. The Tech Tour Growth 50 Companies have created over 9,000 high-tech jobs, raised over $3.7 billion of investment from 309 investors and have an estimated average valuation of $338 million. This is a clear demonstration of Europe’s strength and competitiveness in scaling-up tech businesses.”

“Drayson Technologies is enabling profound changes in digital health and environmental monitoring. It is one of the major emerging success stories, and it will be interesting to watch the company continue to go from strength to strength in the coming months and years.”

Drayson Technologies has today announced it has won the ‘Best Technical Development Within Energy Harvesting’ award category at the IDTechEx Show for its Freevolt technology. The award is in recognition of the innovative energy management that Freevolt is bringing to the global Internet of Things (IoT) market.

Freevolt is a patented and patent-pending wireless charging technology for IoT devices. It uses recycled radio frequency energy harvested from wireless transmissions such as microwave, cellular, WiFi and digital TV when sufficient RF density is available, or inductive power transfer using a dedicated transmitter.

Freevolt technology can extend the lifetime of IoT devices by trickle charging their batteries. As the number of IoT devices in use continues to grow, Freevolt offers a sustainable, cost efficient solution for powering IoT networks. Through these advancements, Drayson Technologies is helping to maximise the huge potential that the IoT can offer governments, businesses and organisations across the world.

Drayson Technologies collected the award during the IDTechEx Show at the Santa Clara Convention Center, where it also presented its Freevolt-powered CleanSpace product, an IoT sensor network to monitor air pollution, to the attending audience of global technology decision makers.

Lord Paul Drayson, Chairman and CEO of Drayson Technologies said:
“We are delighted to have won the IDTechEx Award in recognition of our Freevolt technology. Drayson Technologies will continue to develop innovative solutions and products over the coming years to fuel the huge growth in this market.”

IDTechEx analyst Dr Harry Zervos said:
“Congratulations to Drayson Technologies who tackled the multifaceted beast of developing a consumer electronics product with a slick form factor and functionalities that address issues of global importance such as increased environmental awareness, while incorporating advanced energy harvesting technologies, bringing to fruition the advent of the IoT by taking advantage of abundant ambient energy sources and – almost ubiquitous by now – distributed processing power.”