Touch panel specialist General Interface Solution (GIS) plans to enter volume production of ultrasonic fingerprint sensor olutions in 2018 targeting Android-based smartphone vendors and other niche markets, according to company CTO Paul Chen.
Leveraging on a technology strategic agreement with Qualcomm, GIS has completed the development of its ultrasonic fingerprint sensor module, which comes in a thickness of only 0.44mm, Chen revealed.
Ultrasonic fingerprint sensors, which are less susceptible to strong light environment as compared to optical sensor products, are likely to be adopted by Android phone vendors for their high-end models, Chen said.
GIS also plans to push its ultrasonic fingerprint sensor modules to high-end household appliances, automotive panels and other medicare devices, Chen added.
GIS will also step up efforts to penetrate into the automotive touch panel market targeting automakers in Europe and Japan in 2018. The company will focus on production of 7- to 10-inch automotive touch panels as well as other touch solutions for center information display (CID) products.
Meanwhile, GIS is also ramping up shipments of its roll-to-roll touch sensor solutions to the smartwatch sector. The company currently accounts for 25% of non-Apple smartwatch market as well as a 10% share of the global smartwatch market.
The global smartwatch market will continue to grow steadily in 2018, and demand for roll-to-roll touch sensor solutions will also expand accordingly, particularly when more vendors are expected to adopt flexible OLED panels for their coming models in the coming year, according to sources at GIS.
GIS to start shipping ultrasonic fingerprint sensor solutions in 2018.
Photo: Shihmin Fu, Digitimes, September 2017
Article translated by Steve Shen
