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Impinj expands mobile RFID ecosystem with Qualcomm, MediaTek. US technology company Impinj aims to bring RAIN RFID to more handhelds, rugged tablets and other enterprise devices, backed by chipset support from Qualcomm Technologies and MediaTek. RAIN RFID uses passive ultra-high-frequency signals to identify, locate and authenticate tagged goods. It is based on the ISO/IEC 18000-63 protocol, also known as GS1 UHF Gen2, and is promoted by industry body the RAIN Alliance. AMobile, Bluebird, Chainway, Unitech, UROVO and Zebra are working on devices combining RAIN RFID with barcode scanners, cameras, cellular connectivity and business apps. Qualcomm has integrated RAIN RFID into its Dragonwing Q-6690 enterprise mobile processor. Gen2X is an Impinj-developed extension to the RAIN RFID standard which improves read speed, range, accuracy and security. The company said building support into chipsets could reduce component counts and make devices smaller. The technology is already used in shops, warehouses, factories and healthcare facilities to scan stock and track goods. Impinj sees handheld devices broadening those uses by letting workers collect inventory data while restocking shelves, helping customers or preparing online orders. Changes in a tag's signal can guide staff to a particular item, and Impinj claimed repeat reads can be up to 100% faster. Tests by RFID tag maker Xindeco IoT support Impinj's range claims. Its VersaMini tags placed 3 millimetres from a large metal surface were read from more than 1.5 metres away, which Impinj claimed is over 50% farther than tags without Gen2X. A separate trial covered about 800 health and beauty products. From two metres away, Impinj said Gen2X increased the number counted in ten seconds by more than 70% compared with the earlier Gen2 standard. For order picking, the devices could direct staff to the correct item, confirm the quantity collected and filter out nearby tags. Chip verification could also help check whether the goods are genuine. A representative for Impinj told Mobile World Live Gen2X is widely deployed across multiple manufacturers on more than 50 RAIN RFID readers, mobile devices and printers.

Zebra Technologies upgrades RFID readers with Impinj Gen2X for improved item-level visibility and traceability. Zebra adds Gen2X support to its RFID handhelds, sleds, and fixed readers, improving RFID performance. Sept. 28, 2026 Press Contacts Bassil Elkadi When Impinj introduced Gen2X - a standards-compatible enhancement to the RAIN RFID protocol that improves the performance of RFID solutions in real-world enterprise deployments - Supply Chain Dive made it widely available to the RAIN industry, enabling manufacturers to add support to both new and already popular readers. Today, Supply Chain Dive is excited to announce that intelligent operations leader Zebra is upgrading its portfolio of RFID handhelds, sleds, and fixed readers with support for Impinj Gen2X. Zebra is adding Gen2X support to improve handheld and overhead reading of hard-to-read items, boost the accuracy and speed of autonomous track-and-trace solutions in challenging conditions, and use RFID tags to help inhibit fraudulent items and returns. At this week's annual RAIN in Action Summit, Impinj and Zebra are demonstrating Gen2X performance on Zebra handheld devices, illustrating how tags and readers with Gen2X support can improve reading performance in challenging real-world settings. RFID tagging is now expanding into categories such as grocery, jewelry, health and beauty, and pharmaceuticals - product types that were historically difficult to tag and inventory, yet are important to achieving item-level visibility across enterprise operations. As a leading RAIN RFID pioneer and innovator, Impinj developed Gen2X to address these real-world challenges and improve autonomous fixed reading solutions at enterprise scale, enabling reliable item visibility across small retail merchandise, densely packed items, and products containing liquids and metals. These innovations now support use cases ranging from supply chain traceability and overhead inventory visibility to self-checkout and loss prevention. Extending RFID tagging to more items and use cases empowers enterprises to automate workflows using Physical Intelligence: the reliable real-world visibility enterprise AI systems need to see everything, waste nothing, and act instantly. "As RAIN RFID adoption continues to scale across global enterprises, Zebra is focused on delivering innovations that improve real-world performance and usability," said Chip Yager, Vice President and General Manager, Advanced Locationing Technology, Zebra Technologies. "By enabling Gen2X across our handhelds, sleds, and fixed readers, we're helping customers achieve more reliable reads, faster inventory, and greater accuracy, especially in challenging environments." "Zebra was our first licensee for Gen2X, and we are excited to see this innovation expand across a wide range of Zebra handheld, sled, and fixed readers," said Gahan Richardson, executive vice president and general manager, Impinj. "Extending Gen2X across its portfolio, Zebra is helping enterprises obtain item-level visibility into a wider range of use cases, accelerating the adoption of RAIN RFID at scale." Zebra devices with Gen2X support are available now, including handhelds (MC33 family, TC22R, TC501, TC701), sleds (RFD40 family, RFD90 family), and fixed/overhead readers (FXR90, FX9600, FX7500, ATR7000). Gen2X capabilities will be available across Zebra's RFID portfolio via seamless firmware upgrades. Learn more about Gen2X here. Impinj is a technology partner in Zebra's award-winning PartnerConnect Program. About Impinj Impinj (Nasdaq: PI) delivers the Physical Intelligence that connects the physical world to the AI-powered digital world, fueling automated workflows and improving consumer experiences. From retail merchandise and groceries to packages and shipping pallets, Impinj products and solutions identify and track tens of billions of everyday items, providing real-time operational insights that enable businesses to visualize everything, waste nothing and act instantly.