Alien Technology raises $80 million for flat panel display manufacturing plant

In a move to finance its transition from R&D to volume production, flat panel display startup Alien Technology Corp. (Morgan Hill, California) has raised $80 million. The funding, consisting of $55 million in equity and $25 million in equipment lease financing, will be used for operational expenses and to build and equip Alien's first production factory. The factory complex, totaling 80,000 square feet, will house Alien's first roll-to roll (web) production line and will have an ultimate capacity of up to one million square feet of flat, flexible displays.

It will be located near Alien's current R&D facility in Morgan Hill, California.

Investors include Philips Electronics' Flat Display Systems group (San Jose, CA), DuPont iTechnologies (Wilmington, Delaware), and Toray Engineering (Seta, Japan). Toray specializes in web processing and is working with Alien on factory design and equipment development for Alien's production facility.

Alien has developed a manufacturing process called fluidic self-assembly for producing active matrix displays. Alien's mission is to combine FSA with roll-to roll (web) processing to revolutionize display manufacturing. Alien's initial products will be small, flexible reflective displays targeted at high-volume, hand-held devices.

Edited by Kristin Lewotsky
Managing Editor, Photonics Online