Start-up gets big order for fluidically assembled RFID chips
eetuk.com
By Peter Clarke
Semiconductor Business News
8 January 2003 (4:30 p.m. GMT)
MORGAN HILL, California -- Alien Technology Corp. has won an order from The Gillette Company for 500 million radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to be made using a novel method of manufacture called fluidic self-assembly.
This is the first major commercial order for products incorporating an electronic product code (EPC) developed by researchers and member companies at the Auto-ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The intention is to create a global standard for an object identification system. It is akin to the familiar passive bar-code system but is an RF system that can hold much more information than a barcode and can be used to track a product's history.
The viability of the EPC system rests on getting the unit and application cost of EPC tags down close to barcode costs as was discussed in this November 22, 2001, story. At the time engineers said Alien's technology promised to cut the cost of RFID chips to as low as 5 cents apiece, compared with typical RFID chip costs of $1, although those estimates were based on volumes of 10 billion units.
Neither the value of the Gillette order nor the unit cost of the RFID tags has been disclosed, although the order was described as being ?a multi-million dollar order that would support large-scale testing of the EPC tag technology through Gillette's supply chain and in retail stores over the next several years.?
?This is a landmark agreement. Alien's partnership with The Gillette Company not only signals that EPC tags will be in commercial production at an affordable price but also heralds the widespread adoption of next-generation Auto-ID technology across the consumer packaged goods industry,? said Stav Prodromou, chief executive of Alien Technology, in a statement.
In fluidic self-assembly (FSA) chips, known as NanoBlock ICs, are poured over a substrate and settle into shaped recesses in the substrate. This allows the very small NanoBlock chips to be handled and packaged into EPC tags in large volumes at high speed, the company claims. This in turn enables Alien to achieve low cost in making tags, the company asserts. The FSA method allows the placement of chips within tags a rate of 2 million per hour compared with 10,000 an hour by conventional handling methods, the company states on its website.
Alien has developed the first EPC labels according to the open specifications drafted at the Auto-ID Center. Alien and several other vendors have developed and are offering for sale readers for this system, the company said. The Auto-ID Center is a research institute within MIT with tens of major corporations as sponsors, including Gillette.
As the cost of these labels falls, Alien expects them to revolutionize supply chain management by providing visibility into inventory levels and product movement at the pallet, case, and shelf levels.
"We are proud to be at the forefront of the introduction of Auto-ID technology and we hope our leadership will help enable the wider consumer packaged goods industry to open a new era in its relationship with retail customers,? said Dick Cantwell, a vice president at The Gillette Company, in a statement.
Shipments of the first EPC products to Gillette are expected to begin within the next few months, Alien said. |
