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Alien Technology Corporation Achieves Another Step
Toward Pervasive, Economic RFID with
Announcement of 12.9 cent RFID Labels
FORBES
September 13, 2005
Alien Technology Corporation today achieved another RFID industry
milestone with the announcement of EPC Class 1 RFID labels priced
at 12.9 cents. This represents a 44% decrease in the price of 96-bit
RFID labels from Alien in the past 12 months reflecting significant
progress towards the goal of widely available, economic RFID labels.
The Alien Technology® ALL-9338-02, a fully converted EPC Class
1 tag, can be purchased today for 12.9 cents in order quantities
of 1 million or more.
The industry's most widely adopted EPC label, the Alien® Squiggle™,
available as the ALL-9338-02 pressure sensitive label, is suitable
for use in general supply chain applications such as those being
implemented by major retailers, their suppliers and the DoD around
the world. The label is one-half inch by four inches in size, small
enough for use on a wide variety of products.
"Customers are expecting and demanding dramatic reductions
in RFID tag costs to improve the business case and ROI for their
RFID implementations," said Keith McDonald, Sr. V.P., Alien
Technology Corporation. "Alien has been very clear about our
roadmap for aggressive cost reduction, and this 12.9 cent price
for labels in relatively modest quantities demonstrates our progress
in driving down the underlying cost of RFID tags. RFID labels from
Alien and our extensive eco-system of Alien Qualified Partners can
be delivered at prices appropriate for mass adoption in the retail
supply chain and other industries."
The 12.9 cent RFID label offered by Alien is made possible by the
company's patented manufacturing process, Fluidic Self Assembly
(FSA®) and Alien's new cost efficient High Speed Strap Attach
Machine (HiSAM) assembly technology. These manufacturing technologies
allow for low-cost packaging of very small semiconductors in very
high volumes that in turn are packaged as low-cost RFID tags.
Alien previously announced the ramp of its RFID chip packaging capacity
to one billion straps per year at its Morgan Hill, CA headquarters.
Alien has now doubled that capacity to two billion units per year
and is building a 47,000 square foot facility in Fargo, North Dakota,
with capacity to produce up to 20 billion units per year in the
future.
About Alien Technology
Alien Technology Corporation is a leading provider of Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) products for global customers in government,
retail, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, transportation, and other
industries. Using its patented manufacturing process, Fluidic Self
Assembly (FSA), Alien manufactures EPC tags in very high-volumes
and at low cost. The company provides a family of RFID readers for
a variety of applications including supply chain management, logistics,
and anti-counterfeiting, to improve inventory management and reduce
operating costs. Alien is an active member of EPCglobal. More information
about Alien Technology Corporation can be found on the Company's
website at www.alientechnology.com.
Alien, Alien Technology, Squiggle, the Alien logo and FSA, are trademarks
or registered trademarks of Alien Technology Corporation in the
United States and other countries.
Copyright 2005 Alien Technology Corporation.
All rights reserved.
(c) 2005 Forbes.com Inc.™ All Rights Reserved
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