Resonant Link and the U.S. Army Continue Partnership to Develop Wireless Power Systems for Cost Savings, Operational Efficiencies, and Army Transition to a Clean Energy Future
Resonant Link, the company that delivers the fastest wireless power for applications big and small, announces their continued partnership with the U.S. Army to solve critical mission challenges.
Resonant Link is a two-time winner of the U.S. Army’s xTechSBIR, or Small Business Innovation Research, program with the Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office. The contract awards came as a result of Resonant Link winning the Army’s xTechSBIR competition, then subsequently securing a first-place award from the xTechSBIR CleanTech program. Resonant Link’s work focused on wireless power for electronics used in the field and on wireless charging for electric vehicles and fleets.
“Power needs are increasing for soldiers, but energy and recharging capabilities haven’t kept pace,” said Grayson Zulauf, PhD, CEO and co-founder of Resonant Link. “With our wireless power system, we can decrease the total number of batteries, but also reduce the cable set, and have a standardized wireless power transfer where multiple different devices can charge automatically without any involvement from a soldier.”
xTech SBIR Competition
In 2020, Resonant Link pitched the capability to reduce cabling complexity inside vehicles to make the Army’s next generation fleet easier to build, integrate, and maintain. They won in the “Combat Vehicle Modernization” topic area, which earned the company more than $30,000 in cash prizes and the opportunity to submit for a Direct to Phase II Small Business Innovation Research contract award with the U.S. Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO), which they eventually won.
“What our technology does is wireless power and data transfer at super high efficiencies, in super small sizes, and through a variety of different materials,” said Zulauf. “For soldiers, it makes the power needs coming from a vehicle much easier to build, much easier to adapt to the use case, and much safer in operating the vehicles with less potential failure modes.”
xTechSBIR CleanTech Program
Resonant Link saw another opportunity with xTechSBIR CleanTech to continue growing in the Army space — this time, focusing on the impacts of wireless charging on the Army’s total vehicle ownership costs. The company analyzed how to deploy a single, high-power wireless charger for various vehicles in a fleet and how this can deliver cost savings, operational efficiencies, and an Army transition to a clean energy future.
Resonant Link earned a first-place award of more than $10,000 in cash prizes and an Army SBIR Phase I contract for their ability to wirelessly electrify critical Army applications using clean, renewable energy that helps mitigate, rather than contribute to, the climate change crisis.
Resonant Link will continue its work with the Army to scale its wireless charging capabilities by quantifying and demonstrating the massive impacts of its wireless charging on fleet total cost of ownership.
“We believe that fleet level optimization is where we will see the true impact of fast, safe, and reliable wireless power, and xTech’s support has been invaluable in helping us scale our wireless power innovations,” said Zulauf.
For more on Resonant Link and xTech, read the full article here.
