BELLEVUE, Wash. – July 25, 2019 – [BUSINESS WIRE] Ossia Inc. (“Ossia”), the company behind the FCC approved Cota® Real Wireless Power™ technology, e-peas S.A. (“E-PEAS”), a leading semiconductor company developing energy harvesting PMICs and extremely-low-power microcontrollers for battery-less IoT applications, and E Ink Holdings (“E Ink”), the leading innovator of electronic ink technology, today announced that they have successfully developed the first-of-its-kind wirelessly-powered Electronic Paper Display (“EPD”) prototype system that is entirely battery-free. This system can be successfully operated and wirelessly powered at-a-distance in a dynamic environment, without the need for any wires or batteries. The companies plan to release this leading-edge technology for commercial use by the end of next year. It is presently available for demonstration purposes only.
Ossia, E-PEAS, and E Ink envision that wireless power will be a key enabler to the extensive use of smart display solutions in the Internet-of-Things (“IoT”) field, such as electronic shelf labels for retailers, digital signage, logistics tags, and distributed sensor networks. Wirelessly powered EPD devices for the IoT can be used in a wide range of industries, including retail, industrial, logistics and warehousing.
Running wires to labels, tags, and sensors are often cost-prohibitive to enterprises. Devices that are battery-powered are much easier to deploy but remain constrained by the finite lives of batteries that deplete and need to be removed and replaced. Through wireless power, device lifetimes are significantly extended, well beyond the capacity currently offered by traditional batteries. Device functionality is significantly enhanced as well.
“We are dedicated to expanding our FCC approved Cota technology to the largest sector in the world and increasing the overall potential of IoT solutions,” said Preston Woo, Ossia’s Chief Strategy Officer. “We are further pleased to collaborate with E Ink, the pioneer and commercial leader in ePaper technology, and E-PEAS, a leading semiconductor for IoT applications with the best-in-class solution for energy harvesting, processing and sensing.”
“Our vision at e-peas is to enable the seamless operation of all connected devices anywhere, anytime, in any conditions with smart innovative solutions,” said Geoffroy Gosset, CEO and co-founder of e-peas. “Enabling the broad proliferation of sustainable EPDs and smart IoT devices, in collaboration with top tier partners, is directly in-line with our core mission.”
“The development of wirelessly powered EPDs is another validation of our technology’s durable and ultra-low power displays being applied to previously impossible and unimaginable applications,” said Johnson Lee, President of E Ink Holdings. “Ultimately, commercializing battery-less ePaper solutions will enable the potential of IoT applications that require ultra-low power consumption displays. It also makes digital transformation easier than one can imagine in various applications such as logistic tags, luggage tags, digital signage and other digital tags.”
About Ossia
Ossia Inc. is leading the world on what is possible with wireless power. Ossia's flagship technology, Cota®, redefines wireless power by safely delivering remote, targeted energy to devices at a distance. Ossia’s FCC approved Cota technology is a patented smart antenna technology that automatically keeps multiple devices charged without any user intervention and enables an efficient and truly wire-free, powered-up world that is always on and always connected. Ossia is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. For more information, please visit www.ossia.com.
About e-peas
E-peas was founded on the conviction that the trillions of connected nodes of the IoT to be deployed in the next few years will require disruptive solutions to extend the lifetime of batteries. Only two ways exist to reach this objective: by increasing the amount of harvested energy, and by drastically reducing the energy consumption of all power consuming blocs of the system. At e-peas, we believe that new applications will ultimately be made possible by the combination of both approaches. Relying on 15 years of research and its patented disruptive technologies, e-peas offers a portfolio of products including photovoltaic, thermoelectric, vibration, and RF harvesters interface ICs, microcontrollers and sensors solutions, all thought to be easily interfaced in order to improve system robustness and reduce applications development time. For more information, please visit e-peas.com.
About E Ink
E Ink Holdings Inc. (8069.TWO), based on technology from MIT’s Media Lab, has transformed and defined the eReader market and is redefining the signage, architecture and design, mobile, wearable and retail markets with its ePaper technology, enabling a new multi-billion dollar market in less than 10 years. Its corporate philosophy aims to deliver revolutionary products, user experiences and environmental benefits through advanced technology development. This vision has led to its continuous investments in the field of ePaper displays as well as expanding the use of its technologies into a number of other markets and applications including smart packaging and fashion. Its Electrophoretic Display products make it the worldwide leader for ePaper. Its Fringe Field Switching (FFS) technologies are a standard for high-end LCD displays and have been licensed to all major liquid crystal display makers in the world. Listed in Taiwan's Taipei Exchange (TPEx) and the Luxembourg market, E Ink Holdings is now the world's largest supplier of ePaper displays. For more information, please visit www.eink.com.