Impinj

American manufacturer of RFID devices Impinj, Inc. is an American manufacturer of radio-frequency identification (RFID) devices and software. The company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The company was started based on the research done at the California Institute of Technology by Carver Mead and Chris Diorio. Impinj currently produces EPC Class 1, Gen 2 passive UHF RFID chips, RFID readers, RFID reader chips, and RFID antennas, and software applications for encoding chips, and gathering business intelligence on RFID systems. History Impinj was founded in 2000 based on the research of Carver Mead and his student Chris Diorio. The name Impinj stands for "Impact-ionized Hot-electron Injection". In 2006, Impinj became the first company to introduce products based on the EPCglobal UHF Gen 2 standard. Bear Stearns reported in 2006 that Wal-Mart issued contracts to Impinj and Alien Technology, including them as significant suppliers for a total 15,000 RFID readers needed for Wal-Mart stores and distribution centers. The report invited speculation but was not confirmed. In the same year, Impinj created new partnerships in Asia. In February, Impinj signed a