Jun 12, 2023Seattle-based technology company Impinj has acquired Voyantic, a provider of radio frequency identification (RFID) testing and measurement solutions, as part of a growth strategy into inlay and label design, as well as manufacturing testing solutions. The acquisition takes place at a time when inlay and label manufacturers are striving to provide ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tags (branded as RAIN) with high reliability and close to 100 percent read accuracy. The test and measurement solutions firm will continue to operate as a division of Impinj, out of its existing office space in Helsinki, Finland.
Impinj is an IC, reader and solutions company dedicated to UHF RFID technology, while Voyantic will continue to offer its test and measurement solutions for inlay and label design and manufacturing for Near Field Communication (NFC) tags as well. Voyantic provides test and measurement systems for RFID tag design and development, manufacturing, academic research and system planning and deployment. The systems can measure a tag's functionality, in addition to its operational performance, according to Jukka Voutilainen, Voyantic's CEO
Voyantic was founded in 2004 to provide equipment that helps companies ensure RFID tags work from development to manufacturing, by measuring their performance, Voutilainen says. In May of this year, Impinj acquired Voyantic as "the leading supplier of inlay design and manufacturing testing and quality control solutions in the market," according to Chris Diorio, Impinj's CEO and co-founder. He reports that the UHF RFID industry has been expanding, and that sustained growth is expected ahead. For that reason, he states, "We see [this acquisition] as an opportunity to advance and accelerate design, manufacturing and testing to drive quality products out into market."
In the long run, Diorio adds, that will be a benefit "for us, as well as for the entire industry." With Voyantic now under the Impinj umbrella, he explains, its test and measurement products can be leveraged by Impinj's developers. Prior to the acquisition, Impinj had already leveraged Voyantic's test solutions at its own laboratory facilities for in-house testing of its new ICs, built into inlays, and inlay manufacturers using Impinj chips have been employing Voyantic test equipment as well.
Meeting Demands for Reliability Above 99 Percent
"We don't just want to make sure that [the RAIN RFID products] work," Diorio says. "We want to make sure that they work repeatedly and reliably, because that's critical for the reliability of the end application as well." Such RFID tags have been providing read reliability above 99 percent in many applications, he notes, which has been sufficient to provide value for use such cases as retail apparel and inventory management. That accuracy level ensures retailers have a view of their inventory counts to prevent out-of-stocks, and it reduces the number of labor hours workers would otherwise spend manually counting inventory, at an accuracy level of considerably less than 99 percent.
Jukka Voutilainen
As companies in other industries begin deploying RFID, however, demands on tag-read sensitivity and reliability are challenging tag and inlay manufacturers to increase accuracy. Applications such as supply chain and logistics management, loss prevention, self-checkout, and pharmaceutical and medical device tracking require the best reliability possible, Diorio explains. For example, retailers require as much as 99.9 percent reliability for self-checkout purposes, to enable customers to make their purchases by reading RFID tags on products at a read station.
Businesses in the pharmaceutical industry are seeking Six Sigma-level accuracy, meaning defects are acceptable at a rate of only 3 parts per million. "So the quality requirement and the new opportunities in front of this industry are dramatically different," Diorio says, "and dramatically more stringent than what the industry has experienced in the past." Impinj seeks to meet that demand for the best IC quality, he adds, as well as the best attachment to antennas and overall inlay quality to meet these needs. The stringent requirements for IC quality, antenna attachment quality and overall inlay quality, at speed and scale, are the primary reasons Impinj acquired Voyantic, Diorio reports.
Voyantic has seen the same demand for the highest reliability of RFID products, Voutilainen indicates. "There's increased need and pressure on inlay manufacturers to deliver quality products," he states, "so that has turned into demand for our test equipment for their production lines." While the company's primary customer group is inlay manufacturers, its products are also used by label converters and systems integrators, as well as some end users.
Looking ahead, Voutilainen says, "Impinj and Voyantic will work together to advance the equipment so that we can further improve label quality and reliability." Voyantic's teams in Finland will continue to operate largely independently. The company has a global presence, he notes, and customers will still use the same points of contact to work directly with the company. In addition, Voyantic's products will continue to test inlays using ICs from all businesses, not just Impinj's products.
Addressing Sustainability Challenges for RFID Tag Users
Later this year, Diorio says he will step down from his position on the board of the industry group RAIN Alliance. Juho Partanen, Voyantic's business-development director, was re-elected to a two-year term on the same board this past April, and Diorio feels that having two members on the board from the same company would be excessive. "I don't think that it's super healthy to have two people from the same company on the Alliance Board," he states.
Chris Diorio
Looking forward, the companies anticipate that UHF RFID tags will incorporate new functionalities based on advanced process nodes built into chips. Diorio cites Impinj's Cryptographic Authentication feature as an example of the trend toward greater functionalities and capabilities built into ICs, which he says ultimately provide value to enterprise end users. Businesses building such features into their products will expect further opportunities to test them during development and manufacturing.
One example will involve sustainability upgrades to the products. "We're seeing a lot of pull from enterprise end users associated with sustainability, and that will mean more development opportunities for companies in the RAIN RFID industry," Diorio says, "as well as new, more sustainable products. Sustainability is going to become a bigger and bigger topic for RAIN." The drive is being accelerated by initiatives such as the circular economy-driving Digital Product Passport plan in the European Union, along with recycling mandates in Europe and the United States.
That, Diorio predicts, will mean not only greater demand for UHF RFID technology across numerous industries, and for uses beyond manufacturing and logistics into consumer use and recycling, but also a demand for more sustainability built into the tags. "Together," he states, "we're going to be looking to design measurement test solutions as inlays get more and more sustainable. and working through the challenges to make sure that we can test them."
Key Takeaways:
- Impinj has acquired Voyantic, which will continue to operate out of its Helsinki facility as an Impinj subsidiary, offering tools to test UHF and HF RFID, as well as NFC products.
- The companies say the acquisition will enable testing and measurement support for inlay manufacturers and other RFID companies as they address new quality demands.
