{"653821":{"#nid":"653821","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech Student\u2019s Microchip Startup Reduces Energy Waste, Amplifies Power Systems in 5G Space","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn 2015,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/edgargaray\/\u0022\u003EEdgar Garay\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;sent an email to a Georgia Tech professor asking to join his lab.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;I want to go to your lab because I want to improve the efficiency of power amplifiers,\u0026rdquo; Garay wrote in his email to Hua Wang, Garay\u0026rsquo;s advisor and director of the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/gems.ece.gatech.edu\/index.html\u0022\u003EElectronics and Micro-System Lab\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;in the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThat email set Garay, a Ph.D. candidate, on path of research and discovery that led him to launch his own startup,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.myfalcomm.com\/\u0022\u003EFalcomm\u003C\/a\u003E. Founded on his doctoral research in Wang\u0026rsquo;s lab, Garay\u0026rsquo;s company is a microchip design startup focused on improving energy efficiency. Its ultra-efficient, silicon-based power amplifiers and front-end modules (FEM will be used in 5G technology, the fifth-generation global wireless standard for machines, objects, and devices.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EGaray\u0026rsquo;s work specifically focuses on issues related to thermal management challenges in 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) technology, which refers to super-high frequency bands for transmission of data and information.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026quot;Our mission with our\u0026nbsp;fabless semiconductor design is to provide the most energy efficient power amplifier products for hardware manufacturers in the 5G millimeter wave market,\u0026quot; Garay said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Last year alone, cell phone base station operators paid around $80 billion in electricity. Most of it is wasted in heat, because of the lack of efficiency in the hardware that they use,\u0026rdquo; Garay said. \u0026ldquo;We came up with this extremely novel power amplifier for the 5G mmWave.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWireless carriers could cut that energy waste, boost the speed of data transmission, and how much data can be moved at any one time.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;So, instead of your movie taking 30 seconds to download or a minute, now you can download it in half a second,\u0026rdquo; Garay said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIt also means carriers can increase the number of users on their networks, he said. By moving to higher frequencies on the 5G mmWave, people in a packed stadium for a sporting event or concert, will be able to make phone calls or even stream at the same time.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026quot;The ultra-efficient, Dual-drive Power Amplifier\u0026nbsp;technology system we created\u0026nbsp;will allow people with mobile-connected devices to spend less time looking for chargers and allow large companies\u0026nbsp;to lower their electricity bills by billions of dollars,\u0026quot; Garay said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETo get to this point, Garay worked with\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/venturelab.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EVentureLab\u003C\/a\u003E, a program that works with faculty and graduate students to help them commercialize Georgia Tech research and intellectual property.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EVentureLab along with\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/create-x.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ECREATE-X\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;are part of a broader Georgia Tech strategy to\u0026nbsp;foster and encourage entrepreneurial confidence in students and faculty and expand the research-to-commercialized startup pipeline.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECREATE-X works with undergraduate and graduate students launching their own startups that are typically not based on Georgia Tech intellectual property.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWhile every student or faculty member won\u0026rsquo;t end up running their own startups, taking them through the entrepreneurial journey will help them regardless of what they in their professional careers,\u0026nbsp;said\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/siva.ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ERaghupathy Sivakumar\u003C\/a\u003E, Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s vice president of Commercialization and chief commercialization officer.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe strategy also helps support another goal: boost the number of startups in the marketplace that are based on Georgia Tech research, he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Out of the 60 licenses we did last year, approximately\u0026nbsp;10% went to startups,\u0026rdquo; Sivakumar said. \u0026ldquo;We have good relationships with business and industry that license our technologies, but we have room to grow in our startup efforts.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESilicon Valley Interest\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EGaray\u0026rsquo;s startup has now attracted interest and support from\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/skydeck.berkeley.edu\/\u0022\u003EBerkeley SkyDeck\u003C\/a\u003E, a high-tech entrepreneurship startup accelerator at the University of California, Berkeley.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe highly competitive SkyDeck program reviews thousands of applications from startup founders around the world but accepts only about 1% of those into its portfolio, said Chon Tang, founding partner of the UC Berkeley SkyDeck Fund.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Skydeck Accelerator is a bridge between technology in the lab and helping those founders get to a stage where their startups are attractive to investors in Silicon Valley, Tang said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;We\u0026rsquo;re looking for companies with a real, distinctive, technical edge,\u0026rdquo; he said, adding that while Falcomm is in the formation stage and on the early side of the companies SkyDeck accepts, Garay exhibited some compelling qualities.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;With Edgar, he\u0026rsquo;s certainly someone who knew the technology very well,\u0026rdquo; Tang said, explaining that acceptance into SkyDeck also comes with a $105,000 investment in Falcomm. Being accepted into SkyDeck gives the company access to UC Berkeley\u0026rsquo;s vast network of alumni and mentors. The company also has free access to software licenses for a year needed to design the chips.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EGaray, who has a\u0026nbsp;provisional patent and plans to file for a non-provisional patent, pitched and presented to potential investors in San Francisco, California as part of a SkyDeck demo day in September.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThat Falcomm is an early-stage startup and was accepted into SkyDeck, which typically takes later-stage companies, speaks to caliber of research being done at Tech,\u0026nbsp;Sivakumar said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;We see SkyDeck as a super exclusive venture firm for later-stage companies, but we at CREATE-X and VentureLab see ourselves as acting as the initial spark to get faculty and students going,\u0026rdquo; Sivakumar said. \u0026ldquo;This speaks to why it\u0026rsquo;s a priority for us to help researchers pursue commercialization. I am not surprised that Edgar got in so easily at Skydeck; we just need to encourage and nurture more students and faculty to see commercialization as an option to pursue.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWhat made the impression with SkyDeck officials was Garay\u0026rsquo;s drive.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;We were impressed by his attitude and his hustle,\u0026rdquo; Tang said. \u0026ldquo;Although he doesn\u0026rsquo;t have industry experience, he demonstrated enough energy and ability that we felt confident that he could move this to the next stage.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBeyond mobile devices, Garay said many industries can benefit from the technology.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;It\u0026#39;s applicable to any industry where everybody\u0026#39;s trying to get more energy efficiency out of the hardware,\u0026rdquo; he said. That includes the cell phone market, the Internet of Things, and even automotive radar.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Six years ago, I decided to come here to Georgia Tech to work on chips and develop technology that I thought was really cool,\u0026rdquo; Garay said. \u0026ldquo;I\u0026#39;ve always been super passionate about developing cool technology that can make a real impact in the world.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThat sentiment is exactly why Georgia Tech is so focused on encouraging entrepreneurial interest in students and faculty,\u0026nbsp;Sivakumar said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Edgar\u0026rsquo;s success is reflective of a broader change we are seeing in academia, where schools have moved from being purely teaching institutes to becoming discovery institutes,\u0026rdquo; Sivakumar said. \u0026ldquo;Now, we are impact centers of higher learning, creating impact through the knowledge and research that we do, and bringing it to the marketplace.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Startup technology leads to Silicon Valley investment"}],"uid":"28137","created_gmt":"2021-12-17 20:00:35","changed_gmt":"2021-12-17 22:37:04","author":"P\u00e9ralte Paul","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2021-12-17T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2021-12-17T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"653824":{"id":"653824","type":"image","title":"Edgar Garay - 1","body":null,"created":"1639776470","gmt_created":"2021-12-17 21:27:50","changed":"1639776470","gmt_changed":"2021-12-17 21:27:50","alt":"Edgar Garay","file":{"fid":"248016","name":"DSC_0222.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/DSC_0222.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/DSC_0222.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1547475,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/DSC_0222.jpg?itok=CvnIPBDH"}},"653825":{"id":"653825","type":"image","title":"Edgar Garay - 2","body":null,"created":"1639777101","gmt_created":"2021-12-17 21:38:21","changed":"1639777101","gmt_changed":"2021-12-17 21:38:21","alt":"Falcomm","file":{"fid":"248017","name":"DSC_0313.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/DSC_0313.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/DSC_0313.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1729354,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/DSC_0313.jpg?itok=CdFJ2BPp"}}},"media_ids":["653824","653825"],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"139","name":"Business"},{"id":"144","name":"Energy"}],"keywords":[{"id":"172364","name":"5G"},{"id":"172310","name":"Edgar Garay"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39451","name":"Electronics and Nanotechnology"},{"id":"39471","name":"Materials"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"106361","name":"Business and Economic Development"},{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EStory and Media Contact:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nP\u0026eacute;ralte C. Paul\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n404.316.1210\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nperalte.paul@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["peralte.paul@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}