Alien Technology
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| Alien Technology | |
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| Type | Private, venture-funded |
|---|---|
| Founded | California 1994 |
| Headquarters | Morgan Hill, California, United States |
| Products | UHF RFID devices |
| Employees | 235 |
| Website | www.alientechnology.com |
Alien Technology is a manufacturer of RFID technology. The company is headquartered in Morgan Hill, California, with an RFID tag manufacturing facility in Fargo, North Dakota, the Alien RFID Solutions Center, in the Dayton, Ohio area, and sales offices in the US, Europe and Asia. It currenty employs approximately 235 people. Alien produces (EPC) Class 1 and Class 1 Gen 2 RFID inlays, tags and readers designed for use in manufacturing lines, warehouses, distribution centers, and retail stores.
Due to potential applications in a wide variety of mass-produced electronic devices, the company received funding and technical support from a number of other manufacturers, such as DuPont Displays and Philips Components. The company's stock symbol will be RFID, pending its listing on the NASDAQ. The company has established relationships with Wal-Mart, the U.S. Department of Defense, The Gillette Company, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Unisys, VeriSign, Manhattan Associates, Microsoft, The Kennedy Group, Nashua Corporation, NCR Corporation, Zebra Technologies and Paxar
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[edit] History
Alien Technology was founded in 1994, but was not focused on RFID products and services until 2000. From 1994 through 2000, Alien focused on continued development of Fluidic Self Assembly technology (FSA®), invented at University of California, Berkeley by Prof. John S. Smith.
[edit] 2000
- August — Began manufacturing of passive UHF RFID products, including tags and readers using FSA, in a Morgan Hill, California.
[edit] 2001
- October — Acquired all of the assets of Wave ID, a privately held company specializing in RFID technology development, via a corporate buy-out.
[edit] 2002
- September — Stav Prodromou is named the Chief Executive Officer[1]
[edit] 2003
- January — Alien won an order from The Gillette Company for 500 million RFID tags. [2]
- February — North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan issued a statement that Alien Technology would build a manufacturing plant in Fargo, North Dakota which could employ over 1,000 people with an annual payroll exceeding $50 million [3].
- July — Announcement made that the North Dakota State University Research and Technology Park would be the site for the planned expansion of its manufacturing operations in North Dakota.[4]
[edit] 2004
- May — A temporary manufacturing facility in Fargo, North Dakota was opened to refine the company's manufacturing line.
[edit] 2005
- January — Alien acquired Quatrotec. LLC, a provider of integration services for baggage handling and screening systems used by the air transportation industry.
- May — The first High Speed Strap Attach Machine (HiSAM), the center of the company's manufacturing line, was delivered to the temporary Fargo Facility.
- August — Ground breaking of the main manufacturing plant in Fargo took place 2.
- November — The RFID Solutions Center in Dayton, Ohio opens.
- December — Second HiSAM is ordered.[5]
[edit] 2006
- January — Ohio State University, Ohio University Center for Automatic Identification, Wilberforce University, Wright State University and the University of Cincinnati announced partnerships with the RFID Solutions Center in Dayton, Ohio.
- April — The main manufacturing site in the North Dakota State University Research and Technology Park in Fargo, ND was opened.
- June —June 2, Alien seeks declaratory judgment in in federal district court in the District of North Dakota to disprove Intermec Patent Infringement.[6]June 15, Alien Technology Corp. gets EPCglobal Certification Mark for its new ultra high frequency (UHF) Generation 2 RFID integrated circuit.[[June 29. Intermec Sues Alien Over IP.[7]
- August — Alien withdraws its Registration Statement for IPO, citing adverse market conditions for new IPOs was not ideal. 3 The following week, 50 of its 250 employees were laid off to reduce costs. New HiSAM equipment delivery 30-AUG-06 in Fargo.[8]
- November — Venture Beat reported that Alien Technology was looking for US$50 million in venture capital to help subsidize the company since it withdrew its Registration Statement for IPO. At the time of the report, Alien had raised $15 million. It is also reported that alien had spent close to US$53 million in 2005. Since its inception Alien Technology had spent over US$243 million in financing. [9] New Higgs chip receives praise for quality.[10]
[edit] 2007
- With the additional financing required after withdrawing their IPO, Alien maintained the 3:1 reverse split on their stock and re-evaluated all shares to $0.32 (at the time of their IPO filing, their internal valuation was $12.10 per share). The company announced on January 9, 2007: "Alien Technology Corporation Names George W. Everhart Chief Executive Officer". With their new CEO, there is some speculation they may perhaps also be an acquisition target by a larger RFID player.
[edit] Facilities
There are three key facility locations for Alien Technology — Morgan Hill, California, Fargo, North Dakota, and Dayton, Ohio.
[edit] Morgan Hill
The Morgan Hill, California campus is split between two buildings. The houses the company's Head Office. Internally it is called "Area 51". The second building, called "Area 52", houses Advanced Research and Design, NanoBlock Development, and RFID Reader Development and Assembly.
[edit] Fargo
The Fargo, North Dakota campus is split between two buildings as well. The first building is the temporary manufacturing facility which was opened in 2004, and is referred to as "Area 53". Due to the opening of the main manufacturing plant, this facility is now only used for continued development of the High Speed Strap Attach Machine (HiSAM) and storage of finished products. This facility is scheduled to be closed between October and December of 2006.
The main manufacturing plant located in the NDSU Research and Technology Park and referred to as "Area 54" houses the Tag Assembly Line, Tag and Label Testing, Quality Assurance, Nanoblock Assembly, Shipping and Receiving, and Fargo offices. North Dakota State University has made a partnership with the company to help NDSU’s Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) develop wireless remote RFID micro sensors for Military and Civilian use.
[edit] Dayton
The RFID Solutions Center in Dayton, Ohio consists of one building and referred to as "Area 55". It consists of a simulated warehouse, distribution center and storage environments, classrooms for University educational programs, and the Alien RFID Academy used to train end-users on how to effectively use RFID. A high-speed conveyor, a pallet stretch-wrapper, a forklift and other equipment have been outfitted with RFID readers for testing and training. Ohio State University, Ohio University Center for Automatic Identification, Wilberforce University, Wright State University and the University of Cincinnati have created partnerships with this site for research into RFID technologies, internships for students, and continuous faculty training.
[edit] Fluidic Self-Assembly and Screen Printing
In this process, specially shaped Nanoblock ICs flow through a liquid solution and are distributed across a flexible film. The surface of the film is shaped micro-embossed receptor holes into which the ICs settle. The shape of the ICs and the corresponding holes are such that the ICs fall into place and self-align, hence the term Fluidic Self-Assembly. After the Nanoblock ICs have been placed in the substrate web, straps are made using screen printing techniques to create large contact pads of conductive ink with electrical connection to the ICs. When a strap is coupled with an IC it usuall resembles a very tiny metalic bow tie. The added strap also allows for easier handling of the very small ICs and the conductive surface area makes connecting the circuits easier and more reliable. Also see; [11] These methods vastly increases the amount of ICs that can be processed, increasing through-put and lowering cost.
More information on the FSA process and a video showing how the process works can be found on Alien Technology's website.
[edit] High Speed Strap Attach Machine or High-Speed Rotary Bonders
The High Speed Strap Attach Machine (HiSAM), Acronym is attributable to Alien Technology, and is the name given to a specialized type of high volume RFID inlay production equipment. The first machine was purchased and put in use by Alien Technology in May 2005. HiSAM machines are also called High Speed Rotary Bonders (HRB). This equipment is made in Japan and was invented and produced by the process automation engineering company.Hallys Corporation
These unique machines are used for handling, sorting, and bonding the IC straps with antennas to create finished Inlays. The machines are extremely fast and capable of processing and production in very high volume at very low cost.
[edit] Competitors
- Avery Dennison
- Impinj
- Intermec
- Philips
- SAMSys
- ST Microelectronics
- Symbol Technologies
- Texas Instruments
- ThingMagic
- Tyco International
- UPM-Raflatac
- Wirama
