Piezoelectric transformer

Purpose and goal

The main objective of the project was the eventual commercialisation of the product in mind. This was to be achieved through the accomplishment of a number of specific goals. These include IPR, technical verification, market verification, business plan, industrial partnership, etc.

Results and expected effects

The majority of the goals were achieved during the project execution: an international patent was granted in 2013, the consultancy agency TTO A/S, Denmark was hired to perform the initial market verification in addition to drawing critical recommendation for continued work, a technical verification was performed confirming the component´s functionality, a number of big companies were contacted and some of them payed visits to the researchers at Uppsala University, both a scientific journal contribution and a ´White paper´ were published,

Approach and implementation

The project was executed under the guidance of UU Projekt AB. It is the project leader´s opinion that the work was done professionally with regular meetings and follow up of the work as well as engaged involvement of the company´s consultants. A small but strategic mistake was done at the beginning of the project, more specifically by seeking a patent so early in the work. This lead to significant time constraints in finding industrial partners since the patents costs start multiplying as soon as the patent is granted. The conclusion is that the full market analysis should come first.