In 2000, University of Washington researcher Chris Diorio co-founded Impinj, a Seattle, WA-based RAIN RFID tag chip specialist. Here we are in 2024, and Impinj is not only still around, but just shipped its 100 billionth RAIN RFID tag chip; almost half of those chips have been shipped in the last four years, as the company is seeing 29% CAGR for the past 13 years.

Gaylene Meyer, Impinj VP, global marketing and communications, said that Diorio’s research led to the development of a self-adaptive silicon chip that could change and react to its environment after fabrication.

“This meant that chips could deliver dynamic information and responses in real-time,” Meyer observed. “Chris thought these inexpensive, tiny chips could be used to ‘tag’ any physical item and connect it to the internet for unprecedented, unparalleled visibility into product movement. He brought this discovery to his mentor, friend, and legendary chip developer, Carver Mead. Together, the two professors co-founded Impinj.”

Impinj’s original focus was on developing low-power analog circuits for 3G wireless systems, but this market didn’t materialize due to the dotcom bubble burst. RFID (also known as RAIN RFID) first received interest in the retail industry from Walmart, a leading proponent of the technology.

“Impinj spearheaded development of the RAIN radio standard, lobbied governments to allocate frequency spectrum, and in the years that followed, Impinj’s approach to ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID tag chips helped to set the industry standard and address numerous markets including retail, supply chain and logistics, healthcare, and more,” Meyer said.

Today, Impinj’s chips are attached to RFID tags for countless products, from apparel and other retail products to medical devices, airline luggage, tires and much more. There is every reason to believe that applications using RFID will continue to emerge in the future, and Impinj will be right there with it.

“I am personally beyond proud of the company a handful of us founded 24 years ago,” said Diorio, Impinj’s CEO, in announcing the milestone on the company’s blog. “That future, I truly believe, will positively transform our world.”

Impinj’s Growth

One of the keys to Impinj’s rapid growth has been the team Diorio and his colleagues have built.

“We believe our corporate success has, and always will, stem from the culture we’ve nurtured,” said Meyer. “We focus on aligning our employees to our principles while promoting and fostering diversity, equity, inclusion, passion, and commitment. Quite simply, we value our people and see them as our strength.

“Impinj thinks big,” she added. “Our vision is a boundless internet of things that protects people, items, and the environment. We are driving a future in which trillions of things are connected every year so that people and organizations can work efficiently, make smart decisions, and achieve sustainability goals by having item-level visibility into every item they manufacture, sell, transport, and recycle.”

Impinj’s comprehensive platform and broad partner ecosystem have also been key to its success as a trusted brand.

“The Impinj platform is an integrated set of best-in-market RAIN products that together deliver advanced capabilities to improve RAIN performance, reliability, and ease-of-use,” Meyer noted. “Our broad, global partner ecosystem gives us market reach, penetration, and scalability to help enterprises around the world achieve business success.”

That teamwork has led to technical advances that have driven Impinj’s growth.

“We stand for quality and innovation,” Meyer observed. “This means we are continually achieving what no one thought possible. Our intense focus on RAIN RFID has enabled us to be first-to-market with innovative, high-performing, and high-quality products including tag chips, readers, reader chips, software, services, and more.

“The Impinj Protected Mode capability available on our tag chips, for example, provides a secure, flexible, easily reversible, and high-speed method to make tag data invisible to RAIN RFID readers enabling enterprises to protect consumer privacy,” she added. “The Impinj Authenticity solution engine provides the first real-time, wireless, long-range, high-speed, end-to-end cryptographic authentication capability to protect everyday items. It enables enterprises to fight counterfeits and gray markets with fast, automated verification that a product is genuine and that the supply chain is secure.

“And our silicon products are continually advancing down Moore’s Law, which opens opportunities for innovation,” Meyer continued. “With our smallest-yet Impinj M800 series tag chips, we delivered advanced features that give enterprises unmatched RAIN readability. Coupled with enhanced tag reliability and manufacturability, low power consumption, this series comprises the most advanced tag chips in the market.

“Enterprise companies and consumers value safety and security as they consider adopting IoT applications,” Meyer added. “Impinj is the most trusted brand in RAIN RFID because we design safety and security into our products. We have a bright future ahead of us.”

Impinj Today

Retail and supply chain and logistics are Impinj’s primary industries.

“In retail we started in apparel and have seen leading retailers expand their tagging to more categories,” Meyer said. “Retail use cases have evolved from inventory management to self-checkout, loss prevention, and even product authentication. The supply chain and logistics industry is another focus for Impinj, where use cases range from shipment and pallet build verification to supply chain automation.”

Meyer sees food and the EU’s Digital Product passport as opportunities for RFID to make its next inroads.

“The opportunity in food – particularly quick-serve restaurants (QSR) – is growing at a faster pace than previously anticipated, with several quick-service food chains talking openly about using RAIN for inventory, shelf life and freshness,” Meyer noted.

“We also see the European Union’s Digital Product Passport legislative framework as an exciting opportunity,” she added. “Under this framework, all products sold in the EU will require an attached identifier that includes detailed information about materials used, manufacturing processes and recyclability. By revealing a product’s journey and environmental impact, Digital Product Passports will empower consumers to make informed purchasing decisions and pave the way for a greener, more ethical future. RAIN RFID is a compelling resource to help brands comply with this initiative.”

Impinj’s Future

Looking back on the past 24 years, Diorio is understandably proud of what Impinj has accomplished.

“We are beyond proud to have shipped our 100 billionth chip,” said Diorio. “What is even more exciting is that we shipped more than half of those chips in just the past four years, a testament to the rapidly growing demand for our technologies. Yet the most exciting part of our journey is still ahead of us, with our total opportunity still less than 1% penetrated.

“For the last 24 years, we have been at the forefront of the RAIN RFID industry’s efforts in standards and spectrum as well as produced the industry’s leading products and sole platform,” Diorio concluded. “Our mission is to connect everything, and we see a future where trillions more items are connected through RAIN RFID.”