Impinj designs semiconductors to adapt to their surroundings. The company's "self-adaptive silicon" technology allows analog circuits -- which translate light, sound, and radio waves into data usable by electronic systems -- to be made smaller and more efficient, and allow for chip adjustment. The company focuses on designing communications chips, particularly UHF Gen 2 radio-frequency identification (RFID) devices for supply chain management/automation (from pharmaceuticals to apparel), and other applications, such as food safety and event timing. Impinj was founded in 2000 by chip design legend (and Caltech professor emeritus) Carver Mead and his former student, Chris Diorio. The company withdrew its IPO in 2012.