IDEX adds staff and ramps up to volume production

Oslo, Norway, 24 October 2011: Due to high and increasing activity level in the company, IDEX has now completed recruiting of five new staff members. The company announced vacant positions just before the summer break.

“The response was good, and we have evaluated, interviewed and tested a number of qualified candidates. This recruiting round has now been completed and our five new team members will come on board these days and early in the new year,” said Ralph W. Bernstein, CEO at IDEX.

The recruiting reflects the high and increasing activity level at the company. The number of customer projects are on the rise following the announcement of an order from Validus, partnership in the eGo project and also five new cooperation agreements in the first half of this year. The cooperation projects relate to IDEX’ patented and award-winning SmartFinger® Film fingerprint sensor. In addition, more than ten potential customers have on request been provided with verious versions of development kits and sensor samples which they try out before possibly entering into a formalised cooperation with IDEX.

“The customers need technical support up to as well as after the point when they decide to enter into a formalised cooperation with IDEX about use of opur fingerprint technology in their products,” Bernstein continued.

Ramping up the production capacity
“Ramping up to volume manufacturing has evolved as a challenging and learning experience for a development company like IDEX,” said Bernstein.

“We completed delivery of our first order several weeks ago. Our production partners used full-scale production equipment to manufacture components and assemble the sensors. For example, the sensor substrate was laid out on glass panels in size 24 by 24 inches. As expected, we fared some surprises and gained useful experiences,” he said.

The new staff members represent a valuable addition of competency and capacity in the further ramp-up to volume production.

Are smartphones next?
IDEX has in the last two years concentrated its efforts on the one-time password (OTP) and card markets, comprising various OTP devices and ID cards and smartcards. This market is in a magnitude exceeding 2 billion units annually. It is expected that a biometric devices will increase its share of this market when the issuers and users recognise the advantages of fingerprint-based authentication.

The next wave will probably be authentication by fingerprint on smartphones. The expected use is various ID and payment solutions. In addition, the need for security and protection of data on the smartphone itself increases dramatically when the smartphone is a computer that contains or has access to kritical and sensitive data.

IDEX has received some introductory enquiries from companies connected to the mobile telephone markets.

“Our SmartFinger Film sensor design has a competitive advantage versus conventional area sensors, while the mobile phone market may also be an attractive market for a silicon version of the SmartFinger,” said Bernstein.

“The agreement with S.I.C. Biometrics which we have entered into already, reletas to a device that is mounted on for example the iPhone and iPad from Apple, and we expect that the phone manufacturers at a later stage will start embedding the sensor in the phone itself.”

IDEX ASA press contact
Ralph W. Bernstein, CEO, tel+47 9305 9303, ralph.bernstein@idexbiometrics.com

About IDEX ASA
IDEX ASA is a Norwegian public company specializing in fingerprint imaging and recognition technology. IDEX’ vision is to ensure individuals a safe, secure, and user-friendly use of personal ID.

IDEX has developed the award-winning SmartFinger Film technology platform including the patented fingerprint imaging principle, sensing scheme and chip design. Combined with core software solutions for imaging and authentication SmartFinger Film enables on-device enrollment, template storage and verification within the very same module. The SmartFinger Film sensor is thin and bendable and can be customized for a variety of applications such as One Time Password devices, Smartcards, ID cards, access control devices and biometric tokens. The SmartFinger technology is available to customers under an intellectual property licensing scheme or as SmartFinger Film sensor assemblies for integration into customers’ products.

IDEX ASA (ticker IDEX) is listed at the Oslo Axess market place on the Oslo Børs (Oslo stock exchange). For more information, please visit www.idexbiometrics.com or contact IDEX at: mailbox@idexbiometrics.com .

 
This information is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
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