Jan 11, 2013

Tweet SAN FRANCISCO—Electronic materials vendor Shocking Technologies Inc. said Monday (May 21) it raised $10.5 million in new funding. The $10.5 million in funding was lead by electronics distributor Littelfuse Inc. , Shocking Technologies (San Jose, Calif.) said. The firm now claims to have raised more than $60 million in investment capital. Shocking Technologies, founded in 2008, said it would use the latest funding to drive and meet global demand for its Voltage Switchable Dielectric, a polymer nano-composite for protecting electronic products from electrostatic discharge. The company says it XStatic material functions substantially as an insulator during normal circuit operation and becomes conductive when the voltage increases beyond a predefined threshold. "We continue to be very pleased with the results OEMs and PCB manufacturers are seeing with this product," said Gordon Hunter, Littelfuse CEO, in a statement. "We believe that the XStatic material is a potentially disruptive technology that provides some very interesting opportunities for the future of circuit protection and addressing the ESD challenge most electronics companies face. " Lex Kosowsky, president and CEO of Shocking Technologies, said the company has made "great strides" in making its ESD solution a predictable and reliable way to offer better ESD protection faster and cheaper. "Through the combination of the unique properties of our VSD material and our robust suite of design and analysis tools, customers are seeing the benefits we can bring from both the standpoint of reduced time-to-market and bill-of-materials," Kosowsky said.