Hi-G-Tek Announces Availability of ISO 18000-7 Standard Products

Business Wire, June 24, 2009

Active-RFID Standard Promises to Drive Down Prices and Increase Innovation with Multiple Vendor Competition

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Hi-G-Tek (www.higtek.com), a developer of active-RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) sensing and control solutions for tracking high-value cargo and sensitive materials, today announced the availability of its 18.7 Secure Series. The new product line meets the International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) 18000-7 active-RFID technology standard and includes both a family of Interrogators (Readers) and Transponders (Tags). In addition, the company announces it has already received a significant purchase order for a broad range of the products.

The ISO 18000-7 standard protocol, now required by the US Department of Defense (DoD) for use around the world operates at 433 megahertz. This frequency features low power consumption that allows the incorporation of various sensor attributes including breach, shock, light, temperature and humidity. In addition, the standard establishes a method for an automatic identification of assets at distances up to 100 meters.

The ISO 18000-7: March 2008 version of the standard was named in the recent U.S. Army Product Manager Joint-Automatic Identification Technology (PM J-AIT) offices award of an RFID III contract to supply active-RFID to the U.S. DoD and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Allies. This contract was awarded in December 2008 to four contractor and active-RFID supplier teams including Hi-G-Tek and its prime contractor Unisys Corporation. The RFID III contract will supply a universal, integrated platform to all government and military users of active-RFID components for logistics and location tracking and conditional monitoring of cargo and assets.

According to Larry Blue, CEO of Hi-G-Tek, “Hi-G-Tek advocates the use of ISO 18000-7 in both commercial and defense applications, because this move from proprietary technology to the international standard is a far more open RFID infrastructure that promises to drive down prices with multiple vendor competition. The ISO 18000-7 standard, as applied to the RFID III contract award, ensures total interoperability between the four vendors’ products. As such, Hi-G-Tek is ready to fulfill opportunities utilizing the standard in the global intermodal shipping, seaport logistics, downstream petroleum transportation and other remote asset management applications around the world.”

Hi-G-Tek is an active proponent of the ISO 18000-7 standard and a founding member of the DASH7 Alliance, an independent industry action group whose primary goal is to promote the protocol in global commercial and defense industries.

About Hi-G-Tek

Hi-G-Tek is the developer of Highly Intelligent RFID asset sense and control solutions for fuel distribution and global trade lanes. The company’s patented “sensing” technology has applications in several key markets, including homeland security, transportation, fuel distribution, military, biomedical and global trade lanes.

Hi-G-Tek’s unique active-RFID solutions provide unparalleled levels of real-time security and “sensing” of key assets, whether stationary or in transit, indoors or outdoors. Its sophisticated technology not only detects where an “asset” is, but also its status or condition—anytime, from anywhere in the world. For additional information, please visit www.higtek.com.