The Forum - 07/12/2003
Alien touches down: Tiny technology pays off big for N.D.
Seeds planted with a $10 million U.S. Department of Defense contract will bear fruit as a new wave of technology sprouts in a former sunflower field on the west side of North Dakota State University’s campus.
“This announcement is big news for our state,” Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said Friday afternoon of Alien Technology’s decision to make NDSU home to its nanotechnology research and production facilities.
Alien Technology is the world leader in “smart tag” technology -- also known as radio frequency identification, or RFID technology, Dorgan said.
Big things are expected for the small California company, which hastily made its NDSU announcement Friday on the heels of news that Wal-Mart would be breaking retail ground with its decision to replace bar coding with RFID technology.
North Dakota’s relationship with Alien Technology began in 2000, when Dorgan -- through his position on the Senate Appropriations Committee -- connected Alien with NDSU.
In the spring of 2001, Dorgan convinced the Pentagon to reprogram $1.6 million for a center of microelectronics at NDSU.
That started a money trail followed by a second, $9.5 million Department of Defense allotment in 2001 and a $9.3 million allotment in 2002.
Earlier this month, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved $30 million for Department of Defense microelectronics research, much of it destined for NDSU and Alien Technology research projects.
With the funding, Alien Technology and NDSU are combining on Department of Defense nanotechnology research. The university’s Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering opens in March in the NDSU Research & Technology Park.
“We never expected this,” said Philip Boudjouk, NDSU’s vice president for research, creative activities and technology transfer. “This is a big change.”
NDSU’s initial role was to protect Alien’s technology -- technology the Department of Defense considered vital. “We are acting to safeguard vital technologies for the U.S., on our shores,” Boudjouk said.
In other words, NDSU’s job has been to make sure the technology didn’t head overseas.
“We were to develop some prototypes for the federal government,” Boudjouk said. “We were definitely not in the Gillette or Wal-Mart picture.”
Gillette is one of the companies already testing smart tags in its packaging. It has a contract with Alien for 500 million units. RFID technology allows companies to place an ultra-small transmitter in retail items. The technology allows companies to literally track items from the factory, to the truck, to the shelf to the checkout counter.
Ultimately, Boudjouk said, consumers will be able to push a cart full of merchandise through an airport security-type scanner. Transmitters placed in that merchandise will, in a fraction of a second, send transaction information to the store clerk.
“Alien is certainly a high-growth company in a high-growth sector,” Boudjouk said.
Other companies are pursuing the same technology as Alien. What sets Alien apart, Boudjouk said, is an advanced manufacturing method that allows it to make RFID labels in very high volumes at a very low cost.
RFID transmitters are no larger than a flake of pepper shaken from a grinder. “The key is putting these little babies where you want them to go,” Boudjouk said.
The military, he said, has an interest in the technology for tracking everything from guns to butter. Smart tags could also replace dog tags, allowing the military to have information on the location of each soldier.
Dorgan said locating the Alien plant at NDSU allows it to combine its research and manufacturing functions. He said Alien can also tap the intellectual capacities of the university and draw potential employees from among the its graduates.
Dorgan met with Alien CEO Stav Prodroumou in January to make a case for bringing the company’s manufacturing plant to North Dakota. Dorgan put Prodroumou in touch with North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven in February.
Dorgan said he has a vision of creating a research corridor in eastern North Dakota, using NDSU and the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks as anchors in an attempt to bring new businesses and industries to the state.
“The fact that Alien Technology chose North Dakota shows we are now on the high- tech map,” Dorgan said. “We’re on the right track when it comes to developing the state’s high-tech sector.”
Gerry Gilmour, ggilmour@forumcomm.com, (701) 241-5560
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