ecd ovonics, half owner of cobasys, was founded in 1960 by stanford r. ovshinsky, a scientist and inventor, with his wife and collaborator iris m. ovshinsky. mr. ovshinsky invented a variation on the nimh battery, and ecd ovonics holds crucial patents on some types of nimh battery technology, licensing them to all major nimh battery producers. among its many activities, it produces consumer-oriented nimh batteries, while cobasys focuses on higher-energy industrial applications.