TDK Corporation announced today that subsidiary TDK Ventures, Inc. has invested in wireless communications disruptor XCOM Labs to expedite the development of their 5G and wireless communications solutions, which emphasize bandwidth capacity, latency reduction/elimination, and compute load balancing. XCOM is working to apply their technology to the future of work and Industry 4.0, where wireless technologies could enable smart factories, automation, off-site training, and more immersive telework experiences. This extends further to telemedicine, entertainment, and even defense applications to help train and prepare military personnel. XCOM’s executive team – Dr. Paul Jacobs, Derek Aberle, and Matt Grob – was responsible for many of the breakthrough technologies seen in the 2G/3G/4G revolutions.
5G and wireless infrastructure are experiencing huge demand for greater expansion and rollout of enabling technologies, as current infrastructure can’t keep up. At its core, each “G” generation represents a push for greater wireless transmission speed, capacity, and overall value. To do this requires not just updates in hardware and software, but leveraging frequency spectra in either new and innovative waves, or utilizing new frequency bands entirely. One of many tradeoffs is in balancing energy, frequency, and transmission. Higher frequency – and thus energy signals – can carry more information in a shorter span of time, but decay more quickly over distance. From an infrastructure perspective, this means more transmitting “nodes” in the network are necessary to carry higher frequency signals across a given area.
XCOM is designing technology to change the playing field. Their solutions target increasing capacity and utility of spectrum over 10x, enabling the potential promised by 5G and next generation developers to become a reality. For example, XCOM is further innovating to push digital transformation to the next level through extended reality (XR). Using a globally available 60GHz millimeter wave band, they are developing a high throughput, low latency wireless system to deliver seamless virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences. What was previously limited by either bulky processing equipment needed nearby, or low throughput limited by smartphone processing, is becoming a comprehensive system that can immerse the user in a metaverse or digital world environment. This will be a leap forward in the integration of edge computing processing to provide a natural user experience.
TDK Ventures shares XCOM’s commitment to a digital transformation for a positive, more sustainable tomorrow. TDK Ventures will work with XCOM to scale the impact of their technology, including leveraging their network connections, industry partners, and connecting XCOM to other TDK business units. TDK Ventures’ platform team additionally provides support to include early product validation, pilots, customer/channel/ecosystem access, market knowledge, operating expertise (e.g., materials, manufacturing, fabless, supply chain) and go-to-market/branding mentorship. To learn more about TDK Ventures, interested startups or investment partners should visit www.tdk-ventures.com or reach out at contact@tdk-ventures.com.
