InPlay has announced its second-generation NanoBeacon Bluetooth system-on-chip, the IN120 — designed for easy integration into devices as small as a smart label.
“Our new IN120 SoC sets a benchmark for smart label technology,” claims InPlay co-founder and chief executive officer Jason Wu of the company’s second-generation NanoBeacon device, following its earlier IN100 family. “By reducing external components to just one, we have enabled manufacturers to produce smart labels more efficiently and economically, opening the door to broader deployment in logistics, pharmaceuticals, and disposable asset tracking.”
That singular external component is a small, low-cost 26MHz crystal oscillator; everything else, the company promises, is integrated directly into the system-on-chip, supplied in a a bumped wafer Known Good Die (KGD) format compatible with roll-to-roll radio-frequency identification (RFID) label manufacturing. Each chip includes an integrated temperature sensor with a claimed ±1° accuracy, and supports an input voltage range from 1.1–3.6V for direct connection a range of batteries including 1.5V printable batteries.
The idea, the company explains, is to take the concept behind its IN100 SoC family and make it better-suited to ultra-low-cost mass manufacturing — providing a means, InPlay claims, of producing active smart labels at a cost competitive to standard passive RFID labels. The company has also confirmed a pre-programming service, to get users up and running as quickly as possible.
Those interested in trying the new parts out will have a little wait on their hands, however: the IN120 is scheduled to sample in the first quarter of 2026, InPlay says, with mass production planned “shortly thereafter.” More information on the underlying NanoBeacon technology is available on the InPlay website.