printer friendly version

Suprema to license BioSign to Qualcomm

Suprema has announced that the company has entered into a commercial software licence and distribution agreement with Qualcomm Technologies for the licensing of Suprema’s BioSign, Suprema’s under-display fingerprint recognition algorithm.

Last year, Suprema entered the smartphone segment with the Samsung Galaxy J5 using its fingerprint solution for smartphones and in February 2018, the company launched BioSign 3.0 at Mobile World Congress (MWC) and has actively pursued the development of integrated solutions with several fingerprint sensor companies.

The previous version, BioSign 2.0, is a fingerprint recognition algorithm technology specialised for ultra-small touch type fingerprint sensors. It provides excellent authentication performance and speed for 4x3.2 mm fingerprint sensors, which is essential for applying fingerprint recognition functionality in mid-range smartphones.

Lately, under-display fingerprint recognition technology, which integrates fingerprint sensors under the display, has been actively developed and introduced with the trend that full-screen display is rapidly being applied to smartphones. This year, premium and mid-range smartphones from major brands are expected to be loaded with under-display sensors.

There are ultrasonic and optical sensors for under-display type fingerprint sensors. In December, Qualcomm Technologies launched the Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor, a high performance ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor is designed to provide superior performance and security over other fingerprint sensor technologies such as optical and capacitive sensors. The ultrasonic sensor is also ultra-thin and optically isolated from the display allowing for sleek industrial designs and virtually no impact to display ageing (image burn).

In the case of the under-display type fingerprint recognition technology, a new recognition algorithm should be optimised for the sensor due to the complicated sensing structure and image characteristics that differ from the conventional touch type fingerprint sensors. This requires the technical barrier of the algorithm to be very high.

Suprema’s BioSign 3.0 is optimised for the characteristics of the image obtained from the under-display fingerprint sensor, providing a high level of recognition performance and speed. BioSign 3.0 has been developed based on Suprema’s 20 years expertise in fingerprint image processing technologies.

Share this article:

Further reading: