As the Winter Olympics unfold, athletes have elevated their performances to new levels, nearly re-defining their sport in the process. Lindsey Vonn turned to men’s skis to win the women’s downhill. Shaun White re-invented snowboarding with his Double McTwist 1260 en route to winning gold.

Impinj hopes to similarly raise the bar in the RFID sector with today’s introduction of the Monza 4 line of premium tag chips. The Monza 4 family is expected to speed RFID adoption by delivering a faster return on investment and operational improvements. Impinj vice president of marketing Kerry Krause says the Monza 4 line should account for 10-20 percent of sales by the end of the year. The popular Monza 3 tag, targeted at cost-sensitive applications that require only basic UHF Gen 2 functionality, will remain a major force in the Impinj portfolio.

“We will be building and selling Monza 3 for several years to come,” says Krause. “These new tag chips are premium products that represent incremental business for us and we believe they will also enable new applications.”

The Monza 4 family of chips is expected to be the go-to brand for industries that seek enhanced security standards, increased read and write reliability, and the greater memory offered by the new line, which includes four high-performance configurations: Monza 4D, 4E, 4U and 4QT. Each configuration addresses specific challenges for varied applications.

“I view these as innovative steps in the marketplace,” says Mike Liard, research director for RFID at ABI Research. “I think the Monza 3 will still be their flagship product moving forward, but the Monza 4 family offers a new avenue for some additional customers and partners looking to enable new applications.”

Check out today’s issue of RFID 24-7 for behind the scenes information on the Monza 4 product line.