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Press Release
Alien Technology® Announces Ultra High Performance Next Generation Global RFID Reader at its User & Partner Conference in Dayton, Ohio
New ultra high performance and feature-rich ALR-9900+ RFID reader supersedes all Alien global enterprise category readers in a common hardware platform.
“”] Dayton, Ohio – 2010 Alien Global User & Partner Conference, 9 March 2010 – Alien Technology, an industry leader in UHF Gen 2 radio frequency identification (RFID) products and services, today announced a new and improved, ultra-high performance Gen 2 enterprise category reader platform, the ALR-9900+, a global enterprise category reader platform with significant performance and feature improvements over its popular predecessor, the ALR-9900. The announcement was revealed at Alien’s 2010 Global User & Partner Conference in Dayton, Ohio, where Alien® is hosting over 130 channel partners and users from around world.“”]“”]The ALR-9900+ supersedes all previous regional-specific enterprise category readers with an operational frequency band ranging from 866MHz (Europe, Middle East & Africa) to 954MHz (Japan). The ALR-9900+ is the parent model to the recently announced ALR-9900-EMA, which was specifically designed for compliance with the new ETSI EN 302-208-2 regulatory compliance standards, more commonly known as ‘the four-channel-plan’.
“”]“”]New technological advancements led to a global reader architecture, enabling a single hardware platform to be factory configurable to accommodate world-wide regional compliance profiles. Additionally, numerous new developments resulted in significant performance improvements as well as incorporation of several innovative features, further complementing the industry leading Alien Higgs™-3 RFID tag IC, bolstering security and authentication applications and supporting all extended and customized Higgs-3 IC features.
“”]“”]Beyond the advantages of a global hardware platform, the key differentiating attributes of the ALR-9900+ over its ALR-9900 predecessor include a vastly improved receiver circuit design with multiple stages of configurable digital filters and high gain, low distortion amplifiers, resulting in a dramatically more sensitive receiver. This best-in-class design provides more read range margin, most advantageous for applications using ultra-high sensitivity tags in challenging environments at extreme distance or where tag backscatter signals are constrained due to sub-optimum conditions, including use with smaller item level tags which often have limited performance.
“”]“”]In addition, dramatic enhancements have been implemented in the interference rejection filters, further improving upon the reader’s ability to operate in noisy, real-world, dense reader environments and continue to optimize read performance. This, along with improvements in the ability to correct and compensate for reflections due to sub-optimal antennas or antenna cables, helps minimize unwanted reflections to alleviate unwanted noise and enhance the received tag signal.
“”]“”]Additionally, the ALR-9900+ supports all standard and extended EPC Gen 2 commands as well as custom Higgs-3 commands and features, including extended memory and the enhanced security and authentication feature, Dynamic Authentication. This new reader-supported feature allows users to authenticate Higgs-3 tag ICs with a multi-phased challenge/response validation algorithm, confirming the Higgs-3 “signature”. The reader also supports the ability to “cloak”, or hide, up to 512-bits of password protected user memory. These attributes are especially useful for high value asset management, fashion apparel or pharmaceutical applications where authenticity or password protected private information is critical in combating counterfeits, to help defer gray market activity, or to conceal private data from unintended public visibility.
“”]“”]The ALR-9900+ is fully software backwards compatible with the previous generations, including the ALR-9780, ALR-8800, ALR-9800 and the ALR-9900 where the long standing popular Alien Reader Protocol has established itself in the industry since 2003. The reader is also fully form-compatible with the popular sub-compact ALR-9900 enclosure, and considerably smaller than the other models previously mentioned. Functionally, the ALR-9900+ is typically perfectly well suited as a replacement for any previous model. The platform supports near-field and far-field coupling and has been compliance tested with dozens of various specialty antennas, including low cost, high performance, low profile, robust, indoor, outdoor, near-field, and conventional circularly and linearly polarized far field patch antennas. Orders for the ALR-9900+ are being accepted now with production ramping up in March and availability in late April 2010.
“”]“”]About Alien Technology
“”] Alien Technology is a leading provider of UHF RFID products and services, including RFID ICs, inlays, readers, services and education. Alien is headquartered in Morgan Hill, California, with Alien Technology Asia in South Korea and the RFID Solutions Center located in the Dayton, Ohio region. Alien also maintains sales offices in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia.“”]“”]Learn more about Alien’s award-winning Higgs™-3 RFID IC, our performance-leading Squiggle® inlay product line, and the renowned RFID Academy at: www.alientechnology.com.
“”]“”]Alien, Alien Technology, the Alien logo, Higgs, and Squiggle are trademarks or registered trademarks of Alien Technology Corporation in the United States and other countries.
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