Post date:
Lifi is a cellular wireless networking technology invented by Professor Harald Haas of the School’s Research Institute for Digital Communications. Lifi uses light emitting diodes (LED) to deliver high-speed wireless connectivity rather than radio waves, like WiFi.
The technology means that future lighting systems could provide high speed wireless networking at the same time as illumination. The technology carries the potential benefits of being truly mobile, and improving energy efficiency and area data rates.
PureLiFi was formed in 2012 as a spin-out from the School of Engineering. This financial boost will enable the company to focus on developing components which can be easily integrated into mobile decides, such as phones, laptops and tablets, and provide these to manufacturers operating on a mass scale.
Professor Haas, who is PureLifi’s co-founder and chief scientific officer, commented “After more than a decade of persistent and system development of key technologies for wireless communications using light and the demonstration of the almost unlimited capabilities of LiFi for secur gigabit wireless connectivity for many use cases such as machine-to-machine communication, we are now at the precipice of a watershed moment for LiFi”.
The funding round includes Temasek, an investment company headquartered in Singapore, and the Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise. This is part of PureLiFi’s strategic move from LiFi systems to consumer components, which the company announced this year at global industry conference Mobile World Congress, where it debuted the first laptop powered by Gigabit LiFi.
PureLifi has also previously conducted 5G trials with telecommunications giant O2 Telefonica, as well as forming a partnership with aerospace and defence group Astronics Corporation to test the use of LiFi on aircraft and collaborating with lighting companies Zumtobel and Wipro.
