Alien breaks silence

Alien technology recently made four important announcements on the same day – ending a legally-imposed silence following the company’s IPO attempt earlier in the year.

The announcements were the opening of a high-volume RFID inlay manufacturing facility in Fargo, North Dakota; the release of its Gen2 chip product; the expansion of its Gen2 inlay portfolio; and news of a supply agreement with six label converters.

The new facility in North Dakota is claimed to be the world’s most advanced UHF RFID tag manufacturing facility. Its current capacity will allow for the manufacture of up to two billion RFID tags a year, which will rise to 10 billion when fully equipped. The opening of the new facility represents a milestone for Alien, which has long positioned itself as a high-volume, low-cost provider of RFID inlays.

‘The wide-spread availability of low-cost RFID tags is vital to the continued rapid adoption of this truly transformative technology,’ says Bob Eulau, acting CEO, executive VP, and CFO of Alien Technology. ‘The result of six years of RFID manufacturing R&D and expertise, the Alien Fargo manufacturing center greatly enhances our ability to meet the mounting demands for affordable, high-quality tags and to help to drive further RFID market growth worldwide.’

The company also announced the availability of its new Alien Gen2 UHF RFID integrated circuit, which is claimed to be two decibels more sensitive than competing chips – allowing for a 30 per cent longer read range. The chip is also claimed to deliver over 10 times faster write speeds than currently available Gen2 chips. According to the company, this enables higher speed manufacturing integration and labeling. This launch means that the number of companies providing Gen2 silicon rises to five, the others being Texas Instruments, Impinj, STMicroelectronics and NXP (formerly Philips Semiconductors).

As well as the Gen2 chip, Alien has announced an expansion of its family of Gen2 UHF RFID inlays, including new World Tags, designed for uniform use around the globe, and small form factor tags aimed at item-level applications.

The World Tags operate within 860 to 960 MHz frequency band, enabling them to be used across globe. They therefore allow companies to manufacture products on one continent and ship them worldwide using a single tag that exhibits uniform behavior regardless of its destination: ‘The use of Alien World Tags helps ensure that what works at the point of origin also works at the point of destination and all points in between,’ said Keith McDonald, SVP, sales & marketing. ‘By providing the same tag globally, Alien is able to develop economies of scale that result in lower tag and infrastructure costs for end users.’

The three World Tags are the M Tag, the Castle Tag, and the 2x2 Tag. The M Tag is optimized for plastic reusable containers, the Castle Tag for corrugate packaging and 3-inch labels, and the 2x2 Tag for apparel and baggage tag applications.

The new small form factor tags are the Mini-Squiggle, designed for item-level tagging, and the 1x1, which is targeted towards plastic packaging such as pharmaceutical pill bottles. These inlays are for use in the Americas and Asia.

Alien’s final announcement was the signing of multi-year supply agreements with six unnamed label converters. Combined, the agreements could amount to up to 840 million RFID tags, including inlays based on the new Gen2 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. ‘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.’