Taking the First Steps Towards Commercialization

May-2025.

True innovation rarely springs from a blank slate; rather, it emerges from the application of new perspectives and the integration of diverse experiences to address familiar problems. At Aura, we have harnessed insights from the telecom industry and applied them to the intriguing realm of sensor technology.

Moreover, genuine innovation thrives by challenging outdated structures and methodologies. It involves rethinking established practices to uncover new possibilities. If we cling to conventional approaches, we risk arriving at the same old conclusions.

Aura Intelligent Systems is proud to unveil an innovative and disruptive sensor technology that is on the verge of its debut. With a commitment to being a true innovator, we aim to bring fresh perspectives to a traditionally conservative industry. As we take these initial steps, we are prepared to challenge old assumptions and replace technologies that have dominated for decades

We are thrilled to announce that we received recognition from one of the leading automotive OEMs and were invited to pitch at a prestigious executive event. This opportunity allowed us to showcase our capabilities through a live demonstration to a distinguished audience of key stakeholders.

In preparation for this event, we engaged in a thorough technical deep dive with a highly skilled radar expert team. This experience enabled us to articulate the numerous benefits and values our solution offers. It was a rewarding challenge to explain our unique approach to experts well-versed in FMCW technology, detailing how our system operates and justifying our claims of exceptional performance and distinct advantages.

This exercise proved to be a resounding success, leading to our invitation to the executive pitch session held in a newly renovated venue at Central Station in Corktown, Detroit. We were inspired by the vibrant energy of the neighborhood and the groundbreaking innovations emerging from it and we engaged in a highly appreciated meeting with an engaged executive audience. Following this meeting, we engaged in meaningful discussions with key technologists, strategists, and end users.

One of the highlights was the chance to interact with a key executive group during the pre-event walkthrough, where we discussed innovations—including our own—made the experience particularly more memorable. On the second day, we visited our Tier-1 partner and a professor who gazed at our QuadRay™ platform as if he were seeing a MacBook Air for the first time!

Aura has a long-standing relationship with the vibrant Korean innovation ecosystem, known for its early and enthusiastic adoption of technological advancements. From the world’s first commercial launch of CDMA mobile service in January 1996 to its remarkable success in consumer electronics, the Korean market has consistently served as a bellwether for digital innovation. Fast forward 30 years, and we are witnessing a similar trend in the adoption of digital technology in radar.

The Korean market stands out as exceptionally intriguing, featuring global leaders in the automotive industry alongside key industrial companies eager to explore spatial sensing technologies. Over the past two years, we have actively engaged with Korea-based customers and partners through technology evaluations, roadmap discussions, and ecosystem collaborations, which culminated in a pre-seed investment from Telechips.

In early April, Aura’s CEO and Founder, Jungah Lee, spent two weeks in Korea to strengthen relationships with existing customers and forge new partnerships. During our discussions with automotive clients, we outlined the requirements for next-generation radar technologies and explored seamless integration into Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) architectures. Additionally, we presented the opportunity to collaborate with our QuadRay™ platform through the Early Access Program, positioning ourselves to lead the industry in the transition to digital technology.

As we move forward with commercialization, we are also focusing on manufacturing and supply chain strategies. As systems become increasingly complex—such as in imaging radar—system-level integration is critical for optimizing product performance and cost. We are actively exploring potential manufacturing partnerships to leverage system-level benefits and lay the groundwork for our upcoming commercialization journey.

Overall, this was a highly successful business trip that underscores Aura’s commitment to the Korean market. And this is just the beginning!

Aura CEO and Founder Dr. Jungah Lee was interviewed by Junko Yoshida, an independent analyst and former editor-in-chief at EE Times, who explores the nexus of mobility, automation, regulation, SW/HW, and AI in her weekly newsletter, Junko’s Tech Probe.

It is a great article, where the discussion with Aura CEO is complemented by discussions with leading industry stakeholders from both NXP and representatives from the German Verano project. The Verano project unifies 11 partners led by Infineon Technologies, including OEM: Mercedez Benz, Tier-1: Bosch and chip companies like Infineon.

It is interesting to see how industry peers acknowledge the importance of safe, energy efficient and fast processing of radar data together with the identified requirements for enhanced performance by combining, several sensors within the vehicle, put exceptional focus on the need for synchronized and coherent operation of the radar network as well as the total cost perspectives.

Aura’s proposed solution presents a different approach to address these challenges that are key to autonomous driving and software defined vehicle architectures.

Here’s the link to the full interview: When Will Automotive Radar Go Digital?

Aura recently had the privilege of hosting a delegation from the Global Robot Cluster (GRC) in Korea, led by Chairman Changho Kim. This initiative aims to establish a Global Innovation Zone for AI Robotics in Daegu City, South Korea. We are excited about the potential for collaboration with Korea’s expanding robotics ecosystem and their industrial customers.

LinkedIn article from MassRobotics.

Additionally, we had the opportunity to present to the Chief Technology Officer team from Halliburton, a leading provider of oil and gas services, along with their technology leaders from 12 different business units during their visit to MassRobotics on April 3rd. This engagement led to fruitful follow-up discussions where we addressed customer challenges and shared valuable insights.

LinkedIn article from MassRobotics:

Aura had the pleasure of hosting the CTO team from ST Engineering, an aerospace and defense engineering firm in Singapore. Many insights on customer use cases and pain points were shared and a plan for demo in the coming months was discussed. This will add to a growing list of defense customers for Gen-1 and subsequent product based on ASIC.

ESPERANTO is a global R&D project funded by Korean government on next generation connected mobility R&D project. We are collaborating with Kreemo, MIT and KAIST to develop software-defined radio for 6G FR3 frequency band. Aura’s role is to develope integrated sensing and communication capability for connected autonomous mobility.

We hosted an on-site visit by Hwanil Yoo, Chief Representative of the KIAT USA Office and Juhae Choi, Principal Researcher at KIAT Headquarters in Korea. During this visit we conducted a project review, where we shared our progress during the first year, and outlined our plans to demonstrate connected mobility with Kreemo’s FR3 radio unit and QuadRay^TM baseband platform.

* ESPERANTO: Embedded Software-defined PHY-Layer enabled on ultra-wideband wireless Transceiver Solution.

Robotics Summit is a two-day conference and exhibition that drives face-to-face engagement among robotics industry leaders and innovators seeking the latest products, services, and insights on industry trends and technologies. It is a great place to connect with decision makers and key stakeholders driving robotics innovation and help solve their robotics engineering needs. This year Aura participated with a booth on the floor together with several Mass Robotics companies. It was busy two days with a lot of visitors and exciting discussions with industry peers and potential customers with an interest in spatial sensing solutions for the robotics industry.

Aura has a specific and articulated strategy to develop a strong and compelling IP portfolio. Until today the company has 9 filed/7 granted patents, with protection in the US, Europe, China, Korea and Japan, with the objective to file several more in a near future.

On April 23rd, Aura was selected one of the awardees for the PROPEL Operations Program from the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition (NEMC) Hub. Aura was awarded with the objective to actively develop and strengthen the IP portfolio.

The NEMC Hub is a network of 250+ organizations including commercial and defense companies, leading academic institutions, federally funded R&D centers (FFRDCs), and startups concentrated in eight Northeast states.

Learn more.

Aura is advancing to the xTechIgnite competition’s final round and will be receiving a cash prize!

Aura won its first DoD award in partnership with Decisive Point. Aura’s proposal, “Software-Defined High-Resolution Imaging Radar for Ground Combat Vehicles”, is to adapt Aura’s QuadRay™ platform for the US Army ground vehicle applications. We look forward to the final pitch event in front of the Army customers and end users. We will have an opportunity to submit Direct to Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) proposal to adapt our commercial platform for Army ground vehicles.

For more information, check out xTechIgnite Competition.

IWPC- or the International Wireless Industry Consortium- is an independent industry consortium with the mission to facilitate global knowledge-capital collaboration, delivering unfiltered real time insight into vital technology, market and ecosystem evolution.

In June, the International Wireless Industry Consortium - IWPC, arranges the Automotive Radar Sensor Architecture Summit. This is an industry leading event that will delve into the future of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), emphasizing radar sensor innovation. Aura has accepted the opportunity to give a presentation, and will present a talk, “Novel Sensor Technology that Enables a Higher Degree of Autonomy While Fitting the Digital SDV Architecture”, where we will position our advanced sensor solution for the automotive industry. This is a global event, with participation from major OEMs, Tier-1s and leading suppliers within the ADAS segment, and a true melting pot to discuss innovations in architecture, processing and integration. A perfect spot for Aura!

This is one of the world’s leading conferences on microwave technology and radar in particular. In September, it will be a melting pot in Utrecht , The Netherlands, where academia and industry will be discussing and debating research and future solutions addressing today’s challenges. Aura will attend this conference and exhibition to meet with customers and partners and to share our solution to today’s challenges in spatial sensing.

The Automotive Forum is a leading event for the automotive industry to meet and discuss the future direction of ADAS. It is co-located with the European Microwave Week and consists of a good mix of technical talks, keynote speech, panel discussions, and plenty of time for networking. The forum is mainly devoted to technical experts and decision makers from automotive industry throughout the whole supply chain.

Aura have been accepted as speaker at this year’s event and we look forward to sharing our latest technical achievements with the industry.

To support growing customer demand and to accelerate commercialization of our QuadRay™ platform, we are preparing to raise a Seed funding round. This milestone builds on the strong momentum we’ve achieved over the past 15 months, supported by $2M in pre-seed investment and $1M in non-dilutive funding.

If you or someone in your network is interested in joining us at this exciting stage, we’d love to connect — please reach out directly to Jungah.lee@auraisystems.com or visit our homepage at: www.auraisystems.com