Alien Technology
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| Private, venture-funded | |
| Industry | Electronics manufacturing |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters | San Jose, California, United States |
| Products | UHF RFID devices |
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Number of employees
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235 (August 2010) |
| Website | www.alientechnology.com |
Alien Technology is a manufacturer of RFID technology. The company is headquartered in Morgan Hill, California, having the Alien RFID Solutions Center, in the Dayton, Ohio area, and sales offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. As of August 2010, Alien 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 has established relationships with Wal-Mart, the United States Department of Defense, The Gillette Company, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Unisys, VeriSign, Dublin, Manhattan Associates, Microsoft, The Kennedy Group, Nashua Corporation, NCR Corporation, Zebra Technologies, and Paxar.
In this process, specially shaped "nanoblock" integrated circuits (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 usually resembles a very tiny metallic 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. These methods vastly increases the amount of ICs that can be processed, increasing through-put and lowering cost.
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