Drayson Technologies will develop “Plug-n-Play” reference designs of its Freevolt™ RF energy harvesting technology delivering 2-3x more power for biometric smart card applications in security, healthcare and finance.
Following an extremely competitive process, with the highest number of applicants to date, Drayson Technologies will receive grant funding of over £100,000 towards the development of the Freevolt technology to make it truly “Plug-n-Play” for companies seeking to integrate Freevolt radio frequency harvesting into their new biometric smart cards currently in development. This new project will take the Company’s latest Freevolt Generation 3 solution and develop a set of standardized reference designs which integrators can use off-the-shelf. This will significantly reduce integration times and bespoke work across multiple applications. In the same way that mobile phones have become a common platform for applications across multiple uses, the next generation of smart cards offer a highly secure solution for all identity, access and payment needs – powered by Drayson Technologies’ patented and patent-pending Freevolt RF energy harvesting technology.
Lord (Paul) Drayson PhD FREng Chairman of Drayson Technologies said:
“We are absolutely thrilled to receive this grant from Innovate UK, which is an excellent validation of the world-leading technology we have developed in Freevolt and the expertise of our team. This funding will enable us to standardise our technology and broaden its application to meet the need for secure, contactless and hygienic biometric smart card solutions across the banking, healthcare and security sectors, all of which have been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Fraud losses on UK-issued cards exceeded £620 million in 2019, with banks and card manufacturers looking to enable greater security in personal identity and banking, through advanced features in payment cards and secure IDs (biometrics, dynamic CVV, etc.). In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for better contactless options for payments and access control, without sacrificing security or user convenience. Advanced power harvesting systems are required to achieve this in order to avoid changing the user experience (e.g. by creating longer transaction times), and to avoid the need for costly infrastructure or system upgrades (Point-of-Sale terminals, door readers, etc.) to support next-generation cards.
Following almost a decade of development, Drayson Technologies’ Freevolt state-of-the-art Radio Frequency (RF) energy harvesting technology is capable of achieving up to 80% RF-to-DC efficiency. This allows Drayson Technologies to deliver a RF harvesting system for smart cards which can harvest 2-3x more power than the nearest alternative. Drayson Technologies signed its first technology licence for the application of Freevolt to Smart Cards in December 2018 with CardLab Aps and, following its first integration into a smart card solution, CardLab signed a further licence extension in December 2019 for Drayson Technologies’ latest Generation 3 Freevolt solution.
About Drayson Technologies & Freevolt
Drayson Technologies is a UK technology company developing Freevolt power 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, from a variety of industries.
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.