Alien Technology, maker of RFID tags and readers from Morgan Hill, Calif., said that the ALL-9338 Squiggle tag being sold is priced at 12.9 cents in the case of a million-unit volume purchase - compared to the past twelve months. A decrease of 44%. The label size is 0.5 inches by 4 inches. In supply chain applications, the ALL-9338 tag is usually placed on the shipping container. A large printed bar code and text shipping label are affixed to the package at the same time.
The report of Alien Technology CEO Stav Prodromou at the EPCglobal conference held in Atlanta on Tuesday stated that Allien’s ability to provide such a low price tag marks the company’s move to the idea of ​​producing less than 10 cents worth of RFID tags by 2008. A significant step. This assumption price applies to Gen 1 tags, not Gen 2, because Gen 2 tags include more complex and expensive chips. Prodromou still said he hopes that end users will continue to use Gen 1 tags in the coming months before Gen 2 tags are used universally.
Alien attributes its ability to manufacture low-priced tags to the company's fluid self-assembling process. The company also promoted their high-speed systems that package chips, straps, and antennas into tags. These processes require less time to manufacture a large number of tags than other tag packaging methods.
Alien also said that they have a stronger manufacturing capacity in the 47,000-square-foot facility in Fargo, ND and can produce straps at a production rate of up to 2 billion yuan a year. In addition, at the EPCglobal US conference, Alien announced three new 96-bit RFID tags: ALL-9340, ALL-9440 and ALL-9338. Similar to the widely used ALL-9338 tag, the ALL-9340 tag is a Gen 1 tag priced at 12.9 cents (one million in volume). This is the first time Alien has named the Squiggle 2 tag family at the conference. Although quite similar to the ALL-9338 tag, the antenna and strap structure of the ALL-9340 tag is said to be highly readable when the tag is close to metal-containing or liquid-quality articles that cause high RF interference.
The other two new Squiggle tags follow the Gen 2 standard. ALL-9440 is designed for the readability of items that are not suitable for radio frequency. Alien described ALL-9440 as a "simple replacement" for the Gen 1 ALL-9338 and ALL-9340 tags for users moving to the Gen 2 system.
The ALL-9460 Omni-Squiggle tag is different from Alien's other Squiggle tags with dual-arm antennas. It has a three-arm positioning low-sensitivity antenna. According to Alien, the tag is intended for use on trays containing items that generate radio frequency interference or on trays that must be read under strong RF noise conditions.
ALL-9340 is currently available. Alien said that samples of the ALL-9440 and ALL-9460 tags have also been launched, but the company has not yet released price information.
Source: EPCglobal China