UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, STARPORT TECHNOLOGIES ANNOUNCE RFID PARTNERSHIP

The University of Kansas issued the following news release:

The Information and Telecommunication Technology Center at the University of Kansas has signed an agreement with Kansas City-based Starport Technologies that grants Starport the right to manufacture and market radio frequency identification tags utilizing patent-pending RFID tag technology developed at the university.

"KU has a mission to move innovations stemming from our research into the marketplace," said Jim Roberts, vice provost for research at KU. "This license to Starport Technologies stems from ITTC researcher Dan Devours' RFID research and is a tremendous example of the process. KU is pleased to partner with CEO Jeff Nedblake and Starport."

RFID identifies tagged items through radio communication between electronic readers and tags that contain data on microchips. RFID tags have advantages over bar codes in that they provide a large, unique identifier, they do not require line-of-sight to be read and multiple tags can be scanned simultaneously. Plus, RFID tags, specifically those that use industry standards and operate in ultra-high frequencies can be read from more than 25 feet away. These capabilities and relatively low cost have spurred the wide adoption of RFID in supply chain management. Typically when RFID tags are placed on or near metal or liquids, performance degrades to the point where tags are no longer usable. Metals and water interfere with the operation of the RFID tag antenna.

The KU-Tag was designed to solve that problem. Researchers at ITTC developed an innovative antenna and system that use readily available components and processes. The KU-Tag system contains four U.S. patent-pending technologies that make it one of the best-performing, thinnest and least costly RFID tags specifically designed to work near metal or liquids.

The KU-Tag is at its best when it's on metal.

"Some of our tags work better on metal than most other tags do in air," said Deavours, an ITTC research assistant professor and principal inventor of the KU-Tag. "We found that the few tags that had been designed for metal were big, bulky, and didn't work well."

The KU-Tag has reported read ranges in excess of 30 feet, yet it is only a little thicker than a coin.

"The KU-Tag is another important tool in our expanding range of RFID solutions," said Nedblake, managing partner of Starport Technologies. "ITTC researchers found an innovative solution to address the metal/liquid problem, which is a common problem we keep hearing from customers. This technology will give our customers a variety of terrific new tools to manage their assets."

Starport will introduce two new RFID tags that leverage the KU technology and that will be particularly well suited for asset tracking applications where metal or liquids are involved. Commercial production quantities of the two products are expected to ship in June, and production samples of the products will be available for inspection at RFID Journal Live, which will take place April 30-May 2 in Orlando, Fla.

A state-of-the-art KU research facility, ITTC is a Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation Center of Excellence and supports multidisciplinary information technology research. ITTC conducts research and development in information systems, telecommunications, bioinformatics and radar systems.

Contact: Keith Braman, 785/864-7697, kbraman@ittc.ku.edu.