Drexler Technology Corporation received a $7.4 million U.S. government order for its LaserCard multi-biometric ID cards, through Information Spectrum, Inc. ([www.informationspectrum.com][1]), a government prime contractor headquartered in Annandale, Virginia.
The new $7.4 million order is part of a five-year, U.S. government procurement subcontract authorizing up to $81 million for optical memory cards used for U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) “Green Card” Permanent Resident Cards and U.S. Department of State (DOS) “Laser Visa” Border Crossing Cards (BCCs). Under the U.S. government subcontract, awarded to the Company in June 2000 for up to 24 million LaserCard(R) optical memory cards, approximately 11,320,000 cards have been ordered thus far under seven purchase orders, including the latest order.
The $7.4 million LaserCard order calls for deliveries beginning next month at a rate slightly above $1 million per month for seven months.
U.S. Department of State Laser Visa cards are used by more than five million frequent visitors from Mexico for crossing the border, allowing travel up to 25 miles into the states of Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas for 72-hour visits for shopping and other consumer activities. According to a May 17, 2002 news release by the INS, with the enactment of the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act, the Laser Visa Border Crossing Cards are also referred to as the “new biometric BCC, Form DST-150” and as the “new biometric, machine-readable cards.” The INS news release is headlined, “More Than Five Million New Biometric BCCs Have Been Issued.”
Headquartered in Mountain View, Drexler Technology Corporation ([www.lasercard.com][2]) develops and manufactures optical data storage products and systems, including LaserCard(R) optical memory cards and chip-ready Smart/Optical(TM) cards (a combination of optical memory card and smart card). Drexler’s wholly owned subsidiary, LaserCard Systems Corporation, makes optical card read/write drives, develops optical card system software, and markets card-related data systems and peripherals. The Company is a supplier of optical memory cards for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Defense, Government of Canada, Government of Italy, and a state government of India. The LaserCard optical memory card is capable of recording and storing up to 2,800 kilobytes (2.8 megabytes) of digital data.
[1]: http://www.informationspectrum.com
[2]: http://www.lasercard.com
