Shocking Technologies Inc. has to be one of the more unique names for a company in the semiconductor field. At first, one might assume justly that they might be working on a product to compete with the Taser, but in actuality quite the contrary is the case. Shocking Technologies is currently developing voltage switchable dielectric materials which are targeted at the printed circuit board (PCB) and semiconductor packaging markets to prevent electrostatic discharge events. As far as the name is concerned maybe it is supposed to imply that this new technology is going to prevent shocking to electronic components – but that might be a stretch.

Shocking Technologies is based out of San Jose California, and in April of last year raised $7M in first round funding from ARCH Venture Partners and ATA Ventures. More recently the company raised an additional $4M in venture debt from Hercules Technology Growth Capital in late December. Surprisingly, finding additional information about the company is rather difficult since their own web site only contains a brief introductory paragraph followed by contact information. Digging around the web one can find that the company’s CEO is Lex Kosowsky who has previously held positions at DMS Technologies, Leading Technologies, and National Semiconductor, but technical information is harder to come by. The only thing available is a single US Patent #6797145 that was issued to the company’s CEO in 2004. Like most patents it is a rather lengthy and not exactly easily readable document, but the general idea is this: Above a characteristic voltage the dielectric material switches from being a dielectric to a conductive material and thus creates an alternative path for the excessive current and hence protects other electronic components. There definitely is a market for this technology, so we’ll be keeping an eye on Shocking Technologies and Lex to see whether they can deliver what they claim in the patent.