After completing his education in 1989, Allen became a member of the faculty of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the Georgia Institute of Technology, ultimately holding the rank of Regents' Professor and the J.M.
In 2013 he joined the University of Pennsylvania faculty as the Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering, as well as being named the founding director of the Singh Center for Nanotechnology at Penn.
Professor Allen’s current research interests are in the field of microfabrication and nanofabrication technology, with emphasis on new approaches to fabricate devices with characteristic lengths in the micro- to nanoscale from both silicon and non-silicon materials.
He was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering (a publication of the Institute of Physics) from 2009-2013, and is currently a member of the editorial board of Microsystems and Nanoengineering (Nature Publishing Group).
CardioMEMS received the 2006 Company of the Year award from Small Times magazine and the 2006 Frost and Sullivan Patient Monitoring Product Innovation of the Year Award, and its wireless aneurysm pressure monitor was highlighted by the FDA in its 2005 ODE annual report as a cleared medical device likely to have a significant impact on patient care.
CardioMEMS completed a 550‐patient clinical trial for its second product, a MEMS-based wireless implantable hemodynamic monitor for patients with congestive heart failure.