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By Sunny Kim

Please introduce your company and update our readers on your latest products.

KSW is a Germany-based company, established in 1994.  Since then we have developed, manufactured and marketed RFID components for a variety of ID and security applications.  Our major markets are e-ticketing, e-banking, access & security and asset management.  We produce more than 100 million transponders per year.  Besides our in-depth manufacturing capability from silicon wafers to final transponders, our major expertise is the quick turnaround time in the development of specific RFID devices, using special IP.  Our latest breakthrough products are: UHF inlays for ID cards, a family of windshield labels for the automotive industry and a semi active label named VarioSens (registered trade mark) which allows to record and store the values of an ambient temperature over time.  These data can be read out at any time via an RFID interface contactlessly even though the battery may have surpassed its lifetime.

How do you anticipate the global RFID component market in next five years? 

Within 5 years, I expect RFID to become a well-known and widely spread technology.  Especially the demand for security and efficiency will be the main drivers for our industry as one can already see these with the introduction of biometric traveller or ID documents, the boom in the retail industry.  Efficiency and  security are also major reasons for the introduction of RFID in credit cards or tickets for the public transportation.  I further expect an average growth rate for RFID components of about 30%  per year.

How would you rate your performance in 2007 and how much growth do you expect for this year?  

The year 2007 was successful for KSW because we won major high volume projects in the field of public transport using RFID tickets, banking and asset management.  For 2008 I anticipate the same growth rate with the RFID components market mentioned above for our company.  This is  possible thanks to our valued clients setting trends in their targeted markets, the well-balanced product portfolio, the quick adoption of market trends and customer needs and of course quality and service.

What do you think will be the next big thing in the RFID components market?

We believe that ID cards and driver licenses using RFID will dominate the growth but see as well the retail market coming along finally, just because RFID is not only used for single item tracking but to improve logistics which becomes more important in a global perspective.  Niche markets still remain attractive especially for merging applications such as payment and access of persons or e.g., vehicles using a windshield label for toll roads, or physical and logical access.

Other emerging RFID technologies are the dual interface technology in the smart card arena or the dual frequency applications to meet several standards.  The later one does not only reflect low and high frequency but more and more UHF and HF applications.  RFID itself may merge with other technologies which can leverage the level of security.  These technologies can be to capture and verify biometric data, video and display technologies or networking solutions.