Freefall Honored At Governor’s Celebration of Innovation

Freefall, a University of Arizona-researcher led startup founded to commercialize an intelligent 5G antenna system, received the Innovator of the Year award in the startup category at the annual Governor's Celebration of Innovation Awards. Marwan Krunz, the Kenneth VonBehren Endowed Professor for ECE, is the company's chief technologist.

“Freefall came up with a radical antenna design and smart beam management algorithms that allow a 5G base station or access point to provide 360 degree coverage at a fraction of the power consumption and size of a conventional antenna array," Krunz explained. "The newly invented antenna system, called FreeStar, enjoys other attractive features, such as the ability to beam a signal to multiple users at the same time and maintain uniform signal irrespective of user location and mobility."

Freefall's technology was invented by company co-founder, chief scientist and vice president for research and development Christopher Walker, who is also an ECE associate professor.