CooliBlade, an innovative high-power thermal management company, is quickly building a name in the thermal management industry. It’s only appropriate for a company coming from cold Northern Finland, where heat is not the most significant challenge, especially during the winter times. CooliBlade is a young spinoff company, originating from VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland. In this blog, I’ll share the background and future vision of CooliBlade with you.
VTT’s LaunchPad program as the development platform
The original idea of the NEOcore thermal channel came to my mind several years ago. I presented these concepts to my colleague Vesa Pentikäinen, and we started the first small scale experiments together.
Development of the NEOcore technology began with small steps inside the VTT. We were lucky to have potential customers as advisors from the early phase. The advantages of NEOcore technology got strong support from the industrial viewpoint, and the customer interest was high from the very first meetings with the customers. That boosted the development spirit and the team’s belief in the future success of the technology.
The verification of the manufacturability, reliability, and performance have been essential matters throughout the whole development process. To speed up the technology’s development and piloting, we entered VTT LaunchPad deep-tech incubator program. Business Finland’s Research to Business funding enabled us to develop the commercial aspects of our technology further, with special emphasis to the commercialization routes and IPR protection. We got steering group members from power electronics companies, such as Danfoss, giving us immediate feedback regarding the industrial needs and applicability of our technology. During the project we got Janne Suhonen to join our team. Janne has strong background in sales, marketing, and business development, especially as a founder of the VTT spinout company Spectral Engines. Janne was the missing link of our team, and his knowledge has helped us a lot in the company launch and go-to-market phase.
CTO Kimmo Jokelainen (left) and CCO Janne Suhonen
The founding of the company
The biggest motivator for founding the company was the identified market demand for a new and more effective thermal management solutions. We had something completely new to offer to an industry that and – according to experts – hadn’t seen many groundbreaking novel developments for decades. We also had a strong passion for entrepreneurship in our team.
Timing is always a critical in the company launch. It is essential to be not too early but neither too late for the market entry. The challenge is often to find the right timing based on the technology maturity and market readiness. One might ask why this is the proper time to establish CooliBlade. The answer lies in the current market situation. There is an unprecedented period of growth happening in the power electronics industry. CooliBlade has chosen six segments and use cases for the NEOcore technology: industrial IGBT, 5G telecommunications, COB LED lighting, energy, e-mobility, and special electronics. There is a favorable market transition on-going in all of these selected segments. We have seen this as an opportunity, that can’t be left utilized. We introduced the first product family to the market three months since the company’s launch. This shows the maturity of our technology, that is significantly higher than in many other early phase spinoff companies.
NEOcore technology opens new possibilities in high power electronics cooling
Our cutting-edge NEOcore technology is designed for optimal thermal conductivity and integrability. The integrated thermal channel enables optimal transfer of heat from the component to until to the ambient air. We have designed new advanced phase change technology and the structure which creates the “Highway for Heat” even for the most demanding power electronics applications.
Our vision is to become the preferred thermal management partner in the power electronics industry. This happens by close collaboration with the market leading companies, offering them design-freedom and and allowing them squeeze more power out from their devices. The first product launch, COMET, took place a month ago, and it will be presented to a broader audience at the PCIM Europe trade show in Nurenberg, May 10-12, 2022. New product series will be launched for new application specific solutions later this year.
CooliBlade is challenging the existing thermal management solutions and taking the power electronics cooling to the next level. Let us know your cooling needs via our web pages, or come and meet us at PCIM, Stand 240, Hall 6.
Kimmo Jokelainen
Chief Technology Officer
