As a technology-rich company, Xerox has long been in the forefront of high-technology products, most notably inkjet printing. PARC, a Xerox company, is a key part of the company, working with businesses and government agencies to invent, co-develop and bring to market innovations.
 
For PARC, the printed electronics space gas been o interest for more than a decade, and in 2010, PARC began a partnership with Thin Film Electronics (Thinfilm), developing next-generation memory technology enabled through printed electronics.
 
The technology is now taking hold. In January 2015, Xerox and Thinfilm announced a strategic partnership in which Xerox licensed Thinfilm’s proprietary technology to manufacture Thinfilm Memory labels – the only printed, rewritable memory commercially available today. In turn, Xerox would market the labels to key customers.
 
Now, Xerox is launching two new products that feature Thinfilm Memory: Xerox Printed Memory and Xerox Printed Memory with Cryptographic Security.
 
Patrick de Jong, marketing manager, Xerox Printed Memory, noted that Xerox has been developing products for printed electronics, but this is the first effort to take these products to the market.
 
“Xerox has been working with PARC for a decade,” de Jong said. “Thinfilm was working with PARC on addressable memory, and we ultimately decided the best way to bring this to market was to license with Thinfilm.”
 
De Jong noted that Xerox Printed Memory is a very small flexible label with a small amount of memory, 4 bit to 36 bits, and its size and flexibility gives it enormous potential for applications. It does not require a battery or a power source, but it does require a reading device to extract the data. Xerox Printed Memory does not need an Internet connection to extract the data, which means there is no possibility of incursions.
 
“Xerox Printed Memory is cost efficient and very secure,” de Jong added. “It offers many different layers of security. It is extremely secure, and becomes less interesting to counterfeit.”
 
The company sees its Xerox Printed Memory solutions as ideal for supply chain security applications and anti-counterfeiting measures for pharmaceutical products, tax stamps and refill authentication.
 
“Two key applications are smart consumables and brand protection,” de Jong said. “Another vertical is the fashion industry. Xerox Printed Memory can be used for refillable items, such as carrying data and calibrating machines. For example, we see potential in markets such as inkjet cartridges and water filters. Our own inkjet devices are very suitable for Xerox Printed Memory. In brand protection, memory can be applied, with the customer providing the data, which can be read by a handheld reader, which is a very important aspect.”
 
Xerox Printed Memory with Cryptographic Security adds significant security layers.
 
“With Xerox Printed Memory with Cryptographic Security, the reader can be attached to a smart phone, and will deliver an authentication code,” de Jong noted. “When it reads the code, it will generate an algorithm, and the smart code will compare the two codes. These labels can be used on applications ranging from pharmaceuticals to tax stamps for liquor and the tobacco industry.”
 
De Jong said that Xerox Printed Memory will be manufactured in Xerox’s Webster, NY plant, and added that the reader is under development. He noted that customers are intrigued by its potential uses.
 
“We are very busy meeting with customers in different verticals,” de Jong said. “There is a lot of enthusiasm for this project, and finding the right applications is key. The prospects we are meeting with have interesting ideas for the product. They surprise us with the applications they have in mind.”
 
While the outlook for Xerox Printed Memory is difficult to estimate, de Jong sees plenty of potential applications ahead for the product.
 
“Brand protection is an enormous market,” he concluded. “We are very close to bringing it to market. This is ideal for mass usage of millions of items, and it will costs cents rather than dollars. We feel very confident that we have an extremely interesting product.”