PRESS RELEASES
Alien Technology® Announces Multi-Year Strategic Supply Partnerships With Leading RFID Label Suppliers
Agreements represent an aggregate of up to 840 million RFID tags, including tags based on the new Alien® Gen2 RFID Chip
October 9, 2006, Morgan Hill, Calif. – Alien Technology Corporation today announced that it has signed strategic multi-year supply agreements with six of the industry’s leading suppliers of RFID labels for the purchase of an aggregate of up to 840 million Alien RFID tags, including tags based on the newly announced Alien Gen2 RFID chip. Under the terms of the Alien Certified Converter Partner agreements, Alien is a primary supplier of Gen2 UHF RFID tags, which the partners convert into inexpensive, high-quality, pressure sensitive labels for a wide range of supply chain, asset tracking and item-level identification applications.
Label suppliers, or converters, provide a vital last step in the creation of many types of RFID labels for customers in Consumer Packaged Goods, Department of Defense (DoD), Pharmaceutical and other key markets. Alien Converter Partners benefit from high-volume availability of Alien RFID tag inlays (comprised of a RFID IC and attachment material), volume discounts and early access to new tag technologies and products such as tag inlays with the new Alien Gen2 RFID chip.
“Alien has made a strong commitment to these top label suppliers to collaborate on provisioning the rapidly growing global market for RFID technology,” said Keith McDonald, senior vice president, Sales and Marketing, Alien Technology. “Though our Certified Converter Partner Program, we are aligning ourselves with the label industry’s quality, price and availability leaders, with the ultimate beneficiaries being end-users seeking advanced RFID labeling solutions exhibiting the best possible price/performance.”
Alien RFID tags supplied to label converters are products of Alien’s proprietary manufacturing processes, which yield high volumes of high-quality tags at the RFID industry’s most affordable prices. With the current capacity to produce up to 2 billion straps and 500 million inlays per year, Alien has established its price leadership through its ability to obtain 15% to 20% more RFID chips per silicon wafer than competitors; its revolutionary, patented Fluidic Self Assembly (FSA®) process that produces inexpensive RFID “straps,” or packaged dies; and its High Speed Strap Attach machines (HiSAM) that each produce 10 RFID tags per second in support of high-volume production. The newly launched Alien Gen2 IC will help support Alien’s continued price leadership through its ability to underpin multiple different tag products with dissimilar characteristics without necessitating changes to Alien’s design, production or cost base.
About Alien Technology
Alien Technology provides UHF Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) products and services to customers in retail, consumer goods, manufacturing, defense, transportation and logistics, pharmaceuticals and other industries. Organizations use Alien's RFID products and services to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and security of their supply chains, logistics and asset tracking operations. Alien's products include RFID tags, RFID readers and related training and professional services. Alien's patented Fluidic Self Assembly (FSA) technology and related proprietary manufacturing processes are designed to enable the manufacture of high volume, low cost RFID tags.
Alien was founded in 1994. The company's facilities include: its corporate headquarters in Morgan Hill, CA; an RFID tag manufacturing facility in Fargo, ND; the Alien RFID Solutions Center, in the Dayton, Ohio area, and sales offices in the US, Europe and Asia. Alien is a member of EPCglobal. More information about Alien is available at www.alientechnology.com.
Alien, Alien Technology, the Alien logo, Squiggle and FSA, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Alien Technology Corporation in the United States and other countries. Copyright 2007 Alien Technology Corporation. All rights reserved.
