RFID: The Next Big Little Thing William T. Colleran, Ph.D. President & CEO, Impinj Inc. Copyright 2003 Impinj, Inc. All rights reserved.

RFID: The Next Big Little Thing

William T. Colleran, Ph.D.President & CEO, Impinj Inc.

Copyright 2003 Impinj, Inc. All rights reserved.

Gilder / Forbes Telecosm Conference 2003 2

What is RFID?

• Stands for “Radio Frequency Identification”

• Replacement for bar codes with several key advantages– No line-of-sight required– Tags can be rewriteable– Unique serial number for each

tag• EPC replaces UPC

EPC Code

ExpirationDate

Tax Tariff

Kill Command

RepairHistory

RFID

Gilder / Forbes Telecosm Conference 2003 3

How Does RFID Work?

• Reader sends RF interrogation signal

• Tag uses incoming RF signal as power source– Tag comprises antenna and RFID chip

• RFID chips are extremely small (< 1 mm2)– No battery required – unlimited lifetime

• Power dissipation must very low (< 10 uW)

• Tag returns EPC by reflecting incident RF signal

Gilder / Forbes Telecosm Conference 2003 4

RFID is Old, So What’s New?

• Previous standards– 125 KHz and 13.56 MHz– Inefficient modulations schemes– Large antennas – credit card size– Short range – < 3 feet

• Emerging standards– 900 MHz– Efficient modulation scheme– Small antennas – postage stamp

size– Long range – ~ 20 – 30 feet– Rewriteable nonvolatile memory

13 MHz

900 MHz

1 – 3 ft

30 ft +

Gilder / Forbes Telecosm Conference 2003 5

Myriad Applications

• Supply Chain

• Package tracking (UPS, FedEx)

• Airline tickets, luggage

• Pharmaceuticals

• Anti-counterfeiting

• Asset tagging, archiving

• Car tires

• Animal tagging

Gilder / Forbes Telecosm Conference 2003 6

RFID in Supply Chain Management

• Albertson’s distribution center in Brea, CA

• RFID will increase throughput and efficiency– Current barcode

scanning slow– Barcode applied

manually by retailer, not supplier

Gilder / Forbes Telecosm Conference 2003 7

RFID in Logistics

• UPS sorting facility in Louisville, KY– Handles ~5 billion

parcels annually

• RFID will increase throughput and efficiency– Current barcode

scanning slow and requires manual alignment

Gilder / Forbes Telecosm Conference 2003 8

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

• 6 of top 7 retailers worldwide

• > $750 billion revenue

Gilder / Forbes Telecosm Conference 2003 9

Astounding Volume

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Un

its

(bil

lio

ns)

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Source: Deloitte & Touche, stores.org, customer interviews.

Gilder / Forbes Telecosm Conference 2003 10

Conservative at 100 Billion/Year?

10 TU

1 TU

100 BU

10 BU

1 BU

100 MU

10 MU

Metcalf’s Law: The value of a network increases

exponentially with the number of nodes on the network

1/Computer

1/ConsumerAppliance

1/Object

Cell Phones Wi-Fi Bluetooth/ZigBee

RFID

1/Human

Potential

CurrentPenetration

Gilder / Forbes Telecosm Conference 2003 11

RFID Chip Market

• First and only market for consumable semiconductors– Most semiconductor products designed to last years– Many RFID chips will last for weeks, days or even hours

• Huge volume – 10s of billions per year– ASPs will start < $0.30 and move to < $0.10– $ multi-billion market in a few years– No entrenched incumbent

• Keys to success– Global standards– Very inexpensive chips => Logic CMOS– Very low power chips => Advanced logic CMOS– Rewriteable nonvolatile memory => Impinj’s AEON

memory

Gilder / Forbes Telecosm Conference 2003 12

Impinj, Inc.

• Fabless startup located in Seattle, WA– Founders: Dr. Carver Mead and Dr. Chris Diorio– 45 employees– Raised $30 million to date

• Platform technology: Self-Adaptive SiliconTM – Self-tuning analog circuits in lowest cost logic CMOS

processes• Superior analog and RF performance (extremely low power)

– AEONTM low-density nonvolatile memory in logic CMOS

• RFID activity– Chairing AutoID Center’s hardware standards body– Developing RFID products for > 1 year

• First RFID chip sampling late this year

Gilder / Forbes Telecosm Conference 2003 13

Award Winning Technology

“Best of the Best”

“Startup of the Year”

“Startups Graduate with Honors”

“Most Promising New Technology”

“Hottest Young Communication Companies”

“Venture All-Star”

William T. Colleran, Ph.D.

President & CEOwww.impinj.com

[email protected]

Copyright 2003 Impinj, Inc. All rights reserved.