Start-up claims commercial application of silicon ink
The announcement signals one of the first commercial application of silicon ink, a highly anticipated market opportunity that could see high-speed presses print millions of throwaway electronic components at a fraction of the cost of silicon-based circuitry.
By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- EDN, October 16, 2008
An MIT-founded start-up has developed what it claims is the world’s first silicon ink-based RFID and has launch a printed silicon RFID platform based on the technology.
The announcement signals one of the first commercial application of silicon ink, a highly anticipated market opportunity that could see high-speed presses print millions of throwaway electronic components at a fraction of the cost of silicon-based circuitry.
According to Kovio Inc, a privately held Silicon Valley-based company founded in the MIT Media Laboratory, the platform allows the development of affordable item-level RFID tags for various markets including retail, pharmaceuticals, transit, logistics, and asset management.
Kovio said it developed the platform based on a combination of high performance silicon inks and graphics printing technology, allowing the fabrication of silicon devices over large areas and on flexible substrates.
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“Printed electronics is no longer a vision -- it is here,” said Amir Mashkoori, Kovio's CEO, in a statement today.
The first products based on the platform are printed silicon HF integrated circuits (PIC) with 128-bits of printed read only memory. The Kovio HF (13.56MHz) PIC will be the foundation for the company's HF RFID tag family.
Kovio’s HF PICs includes synchronous "tags-talk-first" mode of operation, 106 kbps data rate, integrated capacitor, and printed read-only-memory. In addition, Kovio claimed that its PICs dramatically reduce the overall cost of tag manufacturing through features such as large PIC bond pads and use of ultra-thin metal foil substrates. Large bond pads improve attach reliability, simply attach requirements, and lower antenna costs, the company explained, adding that the use of thin metal foil starting substrates precludes the need for thickness reduction used by traditional IC manufacturers for conventional silicon ICs.
“While there has been a lot of talk about RFID over the past decade, affordability is the number one requirement for RFID to displace the barcode for item-level intelligence,” said Rob Chandra of Bessemer Venture Partners, an early investor in Kovio, in the statement. “With Kovio’s printed silicon platform, we are now ready to truly extend RFID to where it matters the most – the consumer.”
Kovio will begin customer sampling of its new products in Q4 and start production shipments shortly thereafter. Initial applications include item-level brand promotions and advertising, authentication, asset management, and ticketing.
