Inside Secure and Kovio partner for ‘printed silicon’ tags

Inside Secure, a manufacturer of semiconductor technology for secure transactions and digital identity, has announced that its range of Near Field Communication (NFC) products can now be used to interact with the Kovio RF Barcode wireless tag, a NFC tag based on Kovio’s printed silicon technology.  

‘We have worked closely with Kovio to ensure that our MicroRead and SecuRead NFC hardware and our Open NFC protocol stack are fully capable of communicating with wireless tags based on the Kovio RF Barcode technology, and we are excited by the possibilities this collaboration can bring to retailers and brands everywhere,’ said Didier Serra, executive vice president and general manager for North America for Inside Secure. ‘Over the coming year, Inside and Kovio will be engaging with major retailers, brands and wireless operators on ways to deploy this solution to enable a new communication medium for interacting with consumers at the point of sale and create new opportunities in brand marketing and advertising at the item level.’

By combining proprietary silicon inks with high throughput and low-cost graphics printing technologies, Kovio RF Barcode tags can be printed in days on flexible substrates at a fraction of the cost of conventional silicon technology, making them practical and affordable enough to be used to extend the convenience and power of real-time personalized permission marketing to mass-market consumer products.

‘The affordability and service model enabled by the Kovio RF Barcode tag offers a breakthrough opportunity for retailers and brands to connect the online and physical worlds, creating a direct and instantaneous communication medium for them to interact with consumers at points of sale and use,’ said Amir Mashkoori, president and CEO of Kovio. ‘Through our work with Inside, consumers, brands and retailers will soon have a broad range of smartphones and other mobile devices they can use to revolutionize the shopping experience.’