As the race toward in-display fingerprint sensors continues, CrucialTec is insisting it’s a key competitor.
For a while, it seemed as though Apple would pioneer the in-display fingerprint sensor technology with this year’s new flagship iPhone, but with reports that the company has run into serious technical obstacles in this ambition, many now speculate that the iPhone 8 will abandon Touch ID fingerprint scanning altogether in favor of facial recognition. And now Samsung, Sharp, and Vivo are all thought to be working on in-display sensor technology for forthcoming phones, but it isn’t yet clear when those devices will reach the market.
Ahn tells the Herald that “CrucialTec is the only company in the world which possesses all five technologies required for high-quality on-display fingerprint authentication — sensor integrated circuit (IC), chip packaging, module, algorithm, mobile firmware.” But CrucialTec’s approach has its own issues. DFS relies on transparent screen pads enabling touchscreen and biometric functionality, but they obscure the display itself. According to Ahn, the company achieved “50 percent in clearness three years ago,” and is now at 90 percent; but depending on what the competition comes up with, that remaining ten percent of blurriness could be a crucial issue.