Licensing

Davidson is seeking instrumentation manufacturers who are market leaders to acquire exclusive, worldwide field-of-use licenses to Davidson’s temperature-tolerant fiber optic measurement intellectual property.

Field-of-Use IP Licensing Process:

Securing an IP license typically consists of a three-phase process:

• Phase 1 Proof-of-Concept - The first phase begins with a clear definition of the field of use and a collaborative proof-of-concept design and development project funded by the prospective licensee. This first phase typically takes about one year to complete.
• Phase 2 Industrialization and Commercialization - The prospective licensee would exercise its right to enter into a limited, exclusive licensing agreement which would initiate a technology transfer and collaborative engineering support project. This second phase typically takes about two years to complete and results in industrialized licensed products.
• Phase 3 Exclusive License Grant - At the completion of Phase 2, the prospective licensee would exercise its exclusive right to convert the limited field-of-use license into an exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to manufacture and sell the licensed products in the specified field-of-use.

Five Reasons to Acquire a Field-of-Use IP License:

• The Licensee would own the Exclusive Rights to Davidson’s Revolutionary and Disruptive Technology in a High-Value Field-of-Use.
• The Licensee would Strengthen and Secure a Long-Term Competitive Position in the Selected Field of Use.
• The Licensee would Secure Cooperative Access to the Inventors and Developers.
• The Licensee would Own any Jointly Developed New Foreground IP.
• The Licensee would Save the Time, Expense, and Risk of Internal Product Development.

Davidson’s Licensing Portfolio:

Davidson holds approximately twenty US and foreign patents covering sensors and signal processers and substantial trade secrets and know-how.

Davidson has extensive experience with licensing and technology transfer and is committed to providing the necessary engineering support to help its licensees industrialize and commercialize its licensed products.

Downhole Oil & Gas Reservoir Performance Monitoring – Davidson granted a license to its fiber optic pressure and temperature measurement technology to a world leader in the field of downhole reservoir performance monitoring.

Gas Turbine Combustion Monitoring – Davidson granted a license to its fiber optic dynamic pressure measurement technology to a world leader in the field of combustion dynamics monitoring after demonstrating its technology to the major electrical power generation frame turbine manufacturers.

Davidson’s pressure transducers can operate continuously at temperatures approaching 1000°F and provide acoustic signatures with frequency responses to 10KHz providing unprecedented accuracy, fidelity, and reliability for gas turbine combustion dynamics monitoring.  Because Davidson’s transducers can “take the heat” and are immune to electromagnetic interference, they can be positioned to make direct combustion dynamic pressure measurements. The electronics can be seamlessly integrated with other monitoring, data archival, and control systems.

Aerospace / Defense – Davidson is currently in a Phase 2 Industrialization and Commercialization project with one of the world’s leading manufacturers of instrumentation for use in commercial and military aerospace applications.

Davidson’s latest miniature static pressure sensors are rugged, temperature-tolerant, and suitable for use in commercial aircraft engine applications. TRL5-level laboratory and engine testing is planned for completion in Q1 2021 proving it is accurate and rugged enough to survive severe shock and vibration. 

The aerospace and defense industries have made great strides in recent years deploying fiber optics and photonics technology on commercial and military platforms because the technology provides so many fundamental advantages. This trend will continue as fiber optic systems evolve for avionics, communication, and vehicle monitoring applications.

Plastics Injection Molding – Davidson has initiated a Phase 1 proof-of-concept project for the development of rugged, miniature, temperature-tolerant, 30,000 psi static pressure measurement instrumentation for use in the plastics injection molding equipment market.

High quality and high yield plastic injection molding requires precise knowledge of the temperature and pressure of the molten plastic during the injection molding process.

Davidson’s first round of prototype testing on injection molding machines showed great promise for the use of Davidson’s temperature tolerant sensors in this application.

Davidson’s Licensing Opportunities:

Davidson has had preliminary discussions with market leaders for licensing its technology for instrumentation in the following fields of use.

Advanced Reciprocating Engine and Compressor In-Cylinder Instrumentation – Davidson’s pressure transducers can be used for in-cylinder monitoring of advanced natural gas reciprocating engines and compressors as well as gas turbines.  The high-speed signal conditioners convert the optical signals into electronic signals at up to 80 kHz sampling rates providing the very fine temporal resolution required for the optimization and health diagnostics of advanced reciprocating engines and compressors. 

High Temperature Subsea Instrumentation – Davidson’s pressure transducers can operate continuously at temperatures exceeding 500°F, well above the temperatures anticipated for any high temperature subsea applications.  Conventional electronic transducers are unreliable and subject to errors or failure when exposed to temperatures above 300°F.  Deep water subsea applications require instrumentation that is much more robust and tolerant to high temperature hydrocarbons from deep subsea wells. The substantial operating temperature margins provide greater safety margins and measurement accuracy over the life of the instrumentation and the subsea installation. 

Refining/Chemicals/Petrochemicals – The most fundamental measurements made in the process industries are pressure and temperature.  Because the electrical power used in all electronic transmitters is greater than the safe limit of electrical power in these explosive environments, all transmitters and cabling used in explosion hazard areas of industrial process plants require explosion-proof enclosures and conduiting.

Because of the ultra-low light power levels involved in Davidson’s fiber optic-based instrumentation, the transducers and cabling are inherently safe and do not require explosion-proof containment.  This fundamental technical advantage allows a new paradigm in industrial pressure and temperature measurements with the potential to eliminate significant cost and measurement errors.

Offshore Oil & Gas – Leaders in the offshore industry realize the need for instrumentation that is not only accurate, reliable, and safe but also very rugged and light in weight.  Davidson’s instrumentation is inherently safe, immune to EMI, and tolerant to high temperatures. The instrumentation can provide substantial weight savings which is crucial in offshore applications.

• First, the transducers are very small compared to conventional transmitters and do not require explosion-proof enclosures or the associated explosion-proof conduit. 
• Second, the transducers use rugged, lightweight, multi-strand optical cables eliminating the need for multiple heavy electrical cables. 

In the end, Davidson’s instrumentation suite has the potential to provide significant weight savings and lower life-cycle costs while eliminating many sources of errors and increasing the safety and reliability of the instrumentation.

Gas Turbines – In addition to making combustion dynamic pressure measurements in low emission gas turbines, it is now possible to make high-accuracy compressor section dynamic measurements and static pressure measurements. It is also possible to combine flame detection with pressure measurements for unprecedented, multivariable measurements. This rugged instrumentation could eliminate most conventional pressure transmitters and related measurement errors associated with the rich-EMI, high temperature environments. 

Clean Coal – Advanced “clean coal” combustion technology involving acoustic tomography can be realized with Davidson’s temperature-tolerant, high performance instrumentation which does not introduce any frequency-dependent phase delays.  A breakthrough in clean coal acoustic tomography could have enormous economic impact as a key enabling technology leading to significant improvements in environmental quality at coal burning power generation facilities worldwide.

SMR Nuclear Power Generation – Davidson’s fiber optic-based instrumentation is designed to use radiation hardened cables that can function to exposures of 200 Mrad. This allows the cables and transducers to be used in containment and for balance of plant operations significantly reducing the number and size of cabling egress points. This also allows the signal processing electronics to be housed remotely in a benign environment outside of containment.  The Department of Energy INL is developing advanced controls and instrumentation for advanced Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) which are the future of the nuclear power generation industry.   Future SMR deployment will require new instrumentation and control architectures to withstand the extreme in-vessel environmental conditions.

Laboratory Test and Measurement – Almost every new process or process improvement begins with the development of pilot plants and many pilot plants operate at elevated temperatures in explosion-hazard areas and in EMI rich environments.

To minimize the cost, optimize the performance, and increase the margins of safety in these harsh industrial environments, advanced measurement technology is required.   Davidson’s innovative fiber optic instrumentation provides a cost-effective solution for any laboratory test and measurement issue that requires precise measurements at high temperatures or in explosion-hazard or EMI-rich environments.

In addition, the small cross-section of the transducers and the ability to make multivariable measurements with a single interrogator provides significant advantages in laboratory and pilot plant applications.