))) Texas Instruments Announces Tag-it™ Smart Label Inlay to Support New ISO 15693 International Standard

))) DALLAS, TX (November 14, 2000)

Continuing its goal of advancing radio frequency identification (RFID) standards and open systems, Texas Instruments Radio Frequency Identification Systems today announced a line of Tag-it™ ISO 15693 Inlays, a new addition to its family of Tag-it™ smart label products that complies with the ISO/IEC 15693 global standard. ISO/IEC 15693 is a global reference standard for contactless 13.56MHz vicinity cards whose technology is also used in smart labels.

The new Tag-it™ ISO 15693 Inlay provides a small, thin, flexible smart label solution with read/write capabilities for a range of worldwide RFID applications including personnel access control, product authentication, ticketing, library management and supply chain management. Featuring an increased memory of 2Kbits that allows more data to be stored on the tag, an improved read range and anti-collision capabilities, the new ISO 15693 inlay can be read by reader devices from multiple manufacturers complying with the ISO 15693 standard. In addition to the ISO 15693 Inlay, TI has also announced its Tag-it™ Multi-Protocol Transceiver IC for OEM product designers and systems integrators developing ISO 15693 compatible smart label readers. By specifying how the data is exchanged between the reader and the vicinity card or the smart label, ISO/IEC 15693 allows for interoperability of readers from a variety of suppliers with cards or labels from different suppliers.

"ISO-compatible smart label products provides customers with choices in technology suppliers and a sense of confidence they are investing in a long-term solution," said Tres Wiley, Texas Instruments marketing manager for smart labels. As an example, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has adopted 13.56MHz and ISO/IEC 15693 in its Recommended Practice for airline baggage RF identification.

Texas Instruments RFID Systems has been an active participant in the process to arrive at ISO standard 15693 for the last several years and continues to be active in standards organizations to develop new standards for RFID.

TI's Tag-it™ inlays can be easily incorporated into smart labels, embedded into source tags or laminated into cards. Designed for industries that need to quickly and accurately identify, track and manage thousands or even millions of items, smart labels provide an easy-to-integrate, cost-effective, consumable RFID solution. Like previous Tag-it™ inlays, the new ISO 15693 Inlay is paper-thin,
re-programmable, and features an anti-collision algorithm for Simultaneous Identification (SID) making them capable of being read simultaneously by fixed-position readers or handheld scanners.

Texas Instruments 13.56MHz RFID readers already in the field can work with the Tag-it™ ISO 15693 Inlay with a simple firmware upgrade.