Minor update on Time Domain
Radical wireless technology may have
its time
By Georgie Raik-Allen
Redherring.com
May 25, 1999
About 20 years ago, a US inventor had a radical idea for
wireless communications: a new kind of radio that
paradoxically did not rely on heavily-trafficked radio waves.
And in the past few months, the brainchild of
Huntsville-based Time Domain's Larry Fullerton has entered
adolescence. The company has notched its first radar
commercial license agreement, and has just closed a $24
million funding round from southeastern investors Fuqua,
Noro-Moseley and Stevens Group.
Larry Fullerton, founder and CTO, first
thought of the idea to transmit radio
signals as discrete pulses, rather than
continuous waves, back in the
seventies. Although his professor at
the time told him it was impossible, the
young inventor persisted in
developing the technology and in
1987 started a small business.
The technology might have languished in obscurity, had it
not come to the attention of the Petroffs, a Huntsville-based
family. Peter Petroff, who worked on the Apollo project,
developed the Pulsar watch and founded ADS Environmental
Services with the help of his sons, including Ralph Petroff,
now CEO of Time Domain.
MIND BLOWING
"The toys he had built in his garage
basically blew our minds," says Ralph
Petroff of his introduction to Mr.
Fullerton's inventions. "He had
developed 22 prototypes that could
'see' through walls, and 'see' beneath
the ground, among other things.
"He needed money and a management
team. So we decided to make an
investment and become the
management team -- me, my father,
brothers, and my wife."
In 1996 the family invested $3 million of its fortune and raised
another $17 million from outside investors. The new
management team also helped lure Silicon Valley entrepreneur
and "mentor capitalist" Heidi Roizen to the Time Domain
advisory board, and helped sign up IBM (Nasdaq: IBM) to
manufacture chips based on the technology.
The pulse technology, also known as ultra-wide band (UWB)
uses short, ultra-speedy pulses to transmit huge amounts of
digital data over a large range of frequencies. According to
the company, the system can carry several orders of
magnitude more data than conventional communications
technology and support an essentially unlimited number of
users. It can also be applied to new radar-like applications.
Right now, the major use of the technology is in the public
safety area. The first product is a radar that police can use to
determine if there is movement in a house before bursting in.
Another is for emergency workers to detect heartbeats of
disaster victims lying beneath piles of rubble.
These are "narrow specialized devices" but ones the
company hopes "will capture the imagination with their
startling capability."
CELL JOB
"This is not a 10 percent better cell phone application, this is
entirely new," says Mr. Petroff.
Eventually, Time Domain wants to move into the ultra-fast,
high-speed indoor wireless markets. "In the home, 20-50
megabytes per second is enough to enable all your
televisions, cable, phone, and Internet without interference or
health problems."
It could also be used to develop tiny communications devices
such as Internet-enabled cell phones the size of a wrist watch.
According to Paul Turner, partner with Price Waterhouse
Coopers, "Time Domain may have developed a 'fundamental
and enabling' technology that will do things that no other
technology on earth can do."
"They may have actually achieved a unique 'triple' -- several
orders of magnitude performance improvement in three
different technologies: radar, positioning, and especially
wireless communications," he says.
Mr. Petroff says the company is not interested in developing
new devices but enabling technology for other companies.
"Who is better equipped to build the cell phone of the future,
us or Motorola or Ericsson?"
He compares the business model to Intel, which develops
chips to power other technologies. "We want to sell the key
chip for wireless networking," the CEO explains.
IT'S NOT RADIO, BUT IT IS
The biggest obstacle right now is Federal Communications
Commission regulations that define "radio" in terms of
continuous radio waves, rather than pulses. Since Time
Domain signals exist on multiple frequencies, as traditionally
measured, it is running afoul of historical restrictions on
bandwidth use.
But because Time Domain's pulses are so low-powered, it is
attempting to register its technology under FCC Part 15,
which is unrestricted unless it interferes with other radio
signals. Laptops, digital watches and pocket-calculators
currently fall under that category.
While the FCC has met with Time Domain and has made some
moves to change the regulations, it is a slow process. Last
year it initiated a "notice of inquiry" and is expected to soon
begin the rule-making process, according to Mr. Petroff.
Another obstacle is an ongoing battle with the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory which patented a similar
technology in 1993 after, the company claims, some of its
researchers heard Mr. Fullerton present his technology.
Mr. Fullerton has been waging a long-term legal battle against
the labs which has so far led to the Patent Office rejecting 12
of the labs' 20 patent claims.
According to Mr. Petroff this "David and Goliath battle" is
another reason Time Domain has begun to attract national
attention.
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