Dizic, a Taiwanese company with a German subsidiary, is looking for investment to take its chirp spread spectrum technology used on its location modules to a new level.
The module has a range of 10km and can pinpoint a location to within one metre. But Zbigniew Ianelli (pictured), the firm’s director of advanced technology, wants to improve on that.
“We have the possibility to do better than one metre,” he said at this week’s Taitronics electronics exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan. “We want to produce a new generation of the chip that is more efficient. And we want to incorporate some features that our customers believe are important.”
The chip on the module is made by ST Microelectronics and is based on a 32bit Arm Cortex M3 core. The module suits machine-to machine communications in heavy industrial environments.
“The technology is excellent for where there is a lot of smoke, or it is a metallic environment,” said Ianelli. “The technology is so unique that it can even transmit from inside a metal box.
“We are not violating the laws of physics, but we are close to threshold limit and the next chip will be on the physical limit.”
Typical applications include working with sensors in a factory to adjust the manufacturing process automatically as, say, temperature and other factors change. In another factory, it is controlling a trolley that transports goods around the premises. And in another it links a high-temperature sensor to a robot that is performing milling operations.
Ianelli said that it would take about two years from receiving the investment for the next-generation product to be on the market.
“I am optimistic that we will get the investment,” he said.