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September 9th, 2005
Impinj, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company with operations in
RFID chips and intellectual property, has said it has entered into volume production of its Monza Generation 2 RFID tag chip.
Along with the announcement the company also said that it fulfill orders exceeding 50 million Monza chips in the second half
of 2005.
Impinj already has manufactured the Monza chip for several customers,
which were listed as Avery Dennison (NYSE: AVY), Hana RFID, IER, KSW Microtec AG, Precisia, RF IDentics, RSI ID Technologies
and UPM Rafsec.
According to Dr. William Colleran, Impinj CEO, "We are extremely
pleased that customers appreciate the performance advantages that our Monza tag silicon delivers. With volume production now
underway and key supply chain partnerships in place, Impinj is well-positioned to support the accelerating Gen 2 adoption.
We expect inlays based on our Monza chips to be available in high volumes as early as September, followed shortly thereafter
by converted labels."
Along with the announcement has also comes news that Impinj has
entered into a manufacturing agreement with Alien Technology, also a RFID chip company. Dr. William Colleran also remarked
on that arrangement, "Alien has established itself as a market leader in RFID for EPC applications, and is especially effective
in using their FSA technology to address the tag assembly challenge faced by the RFID industry. Under this arrangement, both
Alien and Impinj leverage our complementary strengths -- Impinj's chip design prowess and Alien's assembly capability -- to
deliver very high performance RFID products at competitive cost. We are delighted to announce our relationship which we expect
will provide differentiated products that meet current and future market needs."
The Impinj RFID solution is called the GrandPrix Solution and is
based on AEON nonvolatile memory technology.
August 31st, 2005
Zebra Aligns with Alien – To Incorporate Aliens’ RFID Tag Chips in Labels
Zebra Technologies (NASDAQ:ZBRA), one of world’s leader in the RFID smart label market,
has reported that Alien Technology has qualified the company as a supplier of Alien Class 1 RFID smart labels. According to
David Bledsoe, Alien Technology director of OEM and consumables, "Alien is a market leader in EPC tag manufacturing and is
extremely pleased to have Zebra as a qualified Alien tag supplier. Zebra has shown outstanding commitment to delivering the
highest quality in printer/encoders and smart labels, which will provide substantial benefit to customers.”
August 15th, 2005
Advance Nanotech, Inc., (OTC BB:AVNA.OB) has acquired an equity
stake in Singular ID, a company that has a magnetic identification method, which may be a potential alternative to radio
frequency identification RFID).
Singular ID’s management indicated that the investment from
Advance Nanotech would serve as an avenue for the company to obtain more funding and manufacturing sourcesm. According to
Adrian Burden, CEO of Singular ID, "The market for fraud prevention is growing rapidly as technology advances and counterfeiting
processes evolve. Advance Nanotech shares our enthusiasm for the role of nanotechnology in providing a robust layer of security
and protection for items of value. The partnership between our companies gives us access to new manufacturing and funding
sources, and will make Singular ID a significant player in the global market."
Magnus Gittins, Advance Nanotech CEO, indicated that the investment
in Singular ID, estimated at around 10 percent, was the company’s first sizable investment in Asian nanotechnology,
"The equity stake in Singular ID represents Advance Nanotech's first significant investment in the Asian nanotechnology market.
We are excited about our partnership with Singular ID and the promise that the company's unique technology holds for the prevention
of fraud. We look forward to working with Singular ID's management team to build out the company and help bring its integrated
tagging solutions to market around the globe."
Singular ID, a spin-off form the Institute of Materials Research
and Engineering (IMRE) in Singapore, has technology that is used to identify items based on an individualized magnetic signature
that is characterized by the materials makeup of the item itself. This gives items a unique identification, similar to fingerprints,
which are unique identification items for humans.
AUGUST 3rd, 2005
Alien, the RFID Chip Company, Lands $66 Million in H Round Funding –
Total Surpasses $200 Million
Alien Technology, considered one of the first companies to develop a low-cost manufacturing
technology, known as the Fluidic Self Assembly (FSA) technology, for the production of RFID tags that are competitive with
bar code label applications, has completed a $66 million round of financing. The financing was led by SunBridge Partners and
included investments from Advanced Equities, Digital Bandwidth, Equitek Capital, Lago Ventures and Miami Valley Venture Fund.
The new funding, now at round H, brings total funding of Alien to over $200 million – one of the highest on record for
a semiconductor company.
Stav Prodromou, Chief Executive Officer, Alien Technology commented
on the investor interest, planned use of the funds and the company’s acquisition of Quatrotec, "The success of this
latest round of financing underscores investor interest in the RFID arena and reinforces Alien's ongoing market and technology
leadership. As a leading pioneer of the UHF RFID industry, we are continuing to invest in state-of-the-art high-volume manufacturing
capabilities, advanced product development, expanded customer solution services and facilities, and broadened market reach,
including acquisitions such as our recent purchase of transportation segment expert Quatrotec."
Besides its Fluidic Self Assembly technology for the manufacture
of low-cost EPC RFID tags, Alien also offers a complimentary family of RFID readers. The company’s end markets include
supply chain management, logistics, and anti-counterfeiting.
JULY 26th, 2005
$10 Million in Funding Available for ASTAR’s RFID Technology Partners
– Integrates Antenna Onto Chip
Exploit Technologies, after an initial proposal review, has announced that it will invest
$10 million (Singapore Dollars) in companies with proposals to further enable A*STAR’s RFID chip technology. One of
A*STAR’s RFID technologies is an RFID chip that integrates an on-chip antenna. The technology offers both read and write
functions. The chip has an area less than 1 square millimeter, compared to other RFID tags that require a few square centimeters
to implement. That technology comes from IME, (Institute of Microelectronics based in Singapore).
The secret to the small size and low cost RFID tag chip is that IME researchers
used a process to fabricate the antenna on top of the RFID chip, as opposed to separate printing and assembly processes often
used to manufacture other types of non-integrated RFID antennas. Professor Dim-Lee Kwong, Executive Director of IME indicated
that the RFID antenna chip was produced in-house at IME’s facilities, “The results of our integrative research,
combining circuit design know-how and processing technologies, have contributed to our ability to offer novel solutions. It
also demonstrates our in-house capabilities to address wide-ranging challenges, from innovative circuit and antenna design
to post processing technologies.”
After the iniitial call for proposals for RFID technology, Exploit reported that a number
of companies came forward. Among them was BiG by Safe Pte Ltd, a consumer electronics retailer with plans to develop an RFID
system for use in its stores and warehouses. Others that have heard Exploit’s call included the National Library Board
and Smart ID Technology Pte Ltd. The National Library Board is studying a smart shelf system and Smart ID wants to develop
passive Ultra High Frequency (UHF) electronic seals.
Commenting on the response on the initial call for RFID proposals was Ms Emily Tan, Senior
Vice President of Exploit Technologies’ Science and Engineering Division and Incubation and Spin-off Management Division,
“The enthusiastic response from the local industry to our call for proposals clearly indicates the relevance of A*STAR’s
RFID technologies for their business needs. With the S$10m investment, we aim to create practical RFID solutions from which
local companies and consumers can benefit.”
Exploit Technologies itself also sees tamper-proof RFID tags for pharmaceutical applications
to deal with the growing medical problem of falsified drugs. The company points to a World Health Organization study that
indicates that about 10 percent of all pharmaceutical drugs are not pharmaceuticals at all – but apparently have been
replaced with other types of inexpensive tablets, such as aspirin or in some cases, substances of unknown nature.
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