NTT DOCOMO Ventures Invests in Metawave

NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan; President and CEO, Takayuki Inagawa) has invested in Metawave Corporation (www.metawave.co). (headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA; CEO, Maha Achour), a company developing an analog beamsteering radar platform and 5G platforms which consist of active repeater and passive relay technologies.

One of the first markets for Metawave is to assist 5G to provide faster than ever data speeds by extending the radio coverage of 5G beyond line of sight from cell towers. 5G utilizes millimeter waves (mmWave) with higher frequencies and shorter wavelengths, which require innovative and advanced analog antenna technology to expand the radio coverage. Metawave’s passive relays are beautifully designed “smart mirrors” that bend and direct signals in areas of lower coverage. NTT DOCOMO successfully conducted a 5G trial using 28GHz trial site and the passive relays utilizing Meta-structure antenna technologies in November 2018 .

As for the radar platform, Metawave is mainly focusing on the automobile industry. They are developing advanced analog technologies to shape and steer the beam which allows radar to detect objects in longer distance, higher resolution and lower latency as compared to traditional radar.

NTT DOCOMO Ventures invested in Metawave to help to their market development and international growth. Metawave’s products have contributed and will continue to support NTT DOCOMO’s expansion of 5G radio coverage in Japan.

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