PI

Impinj, Inc.

A maker of tiny silicon chips and readers that give everyday objects—clothing, luggage, medical supplies—a digital identity, so businesses can track them wirelessly without line-of-sight scanning. Founded in 2000 by University of Washington professor Chris Diorio and his Caltech advisor Carver Mead, the company grew out of their research into self-adaptive silicon chips. Its name is a nod to that science: "Impinj" is an acronym for the process "impact-ionized hot-electron injection" behind their early chip research.