Is the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor something Apple is secretly developing?
This year, the race to integrate fingerprint sensors under smartphone screens is becoming more intense with the entry of Apple.
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South Korean media Chosun reported that Apple is developing embedded technology.fingerprint sensorunder the screen. Other major smartphone manufacturers like Samsung are also pursuing this technology because it can expand the screen by eliminating the large bezels on the bottom edge of the device and the back of the device because it does not need to place a fingerprint sensor.
The optical sensor has the lowest production cost, and is being used by Vivo, Huawei, and Xiaomi for their smartphones. This type is not as accurate as capacitive and ultrasonic sensors. Chosun said that in addition to Apple and Samsung, chip maker Qualcomm is also developing ultrasonic fingerprint sensors embedded under the screen.
Ultrasonic fingerprint sensors are expensive to produce and have low yields, but offer a better experience due to their higher accuracy. Last year, Vivo surprised everyone by introducing a smartphone using ultrasonic fingerprint technology at a trade fair in Shanghai, China.
This product uses an ultrasonic sensor module developed by Qualcomm, which can work well when hands are sweaty or wet. At that time, Vivo was said to have surpassed Apple in developing ultrasonic fingerprint sensor technology. However, this Vivo smartphone later showed that the recognition speed was still a bit slow, so it was not considered complete.
Samsung also planned to put this technology on the Galaxy S8 but failed, so it had to put the fingerprint sensor on the back of the device. It is expected that Samsung will continue to put this technology on the Galaxy S10, launched in January 2019. Meanwhile, Apple has not shown any clear signs about which version of the iPhone it will put the ultrasonic sensor technology under the screen.