Vkansee to ship ultra-thin, proof-of-concept optical fingerprint sensor

Vkansee has revealed that it has shipped pre-production, proof-of-concept samples of its latest, patented ultra-thin optical fingerprint sensor.

BiometricUpdate.com first reported about Vkansee’s sensors when they were initially showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2015. Since that time, samples of the product have been shared with leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for evaluation and to gather requirements before finalizing the design. The new smaller sensor will be on display at Vkansee’s booth at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this month.

“It’s an exciting time for us as the industry starts to recognize the potential of our under-glass optical sensors and what they can capture,” stated Jason Chaikin, President of Vkansee. “When we first set out to disrupt the biometric authentication space a year ago, we didn’t expect to receive interest from the major players so quickly. With the sensors now in their hands, we’re looking forward to finalizing our design and seeing them hit the market soon.”

The VK0208 sensor, designed for integration with leading PC and smartphone manufacturers, can capture fingerprint images at a high resolution of 2,000 pixel-per-inch (PPI), in contrast to current industry standard sensors which only reach 500 PPI.

The new sensor has a 6.0 x 3.5 mm active area, is only 1.5 mm thin and operates under 0.4 ~ 0.8 mm cover glass. The VK0208 supports third-level feature recognition, which means it captures microscopic sweat pores, ridge textures and other micro-features of the fingerprint, in addition to the usual ridge flow patterns and minutiae in second level feature recognition.

“What differentiates our product is that we have produced the first minute, native under-glass sensor that does not draw upon capacitive sensing,” stated Chaikin in an exclusive interview with BiometricUpdate.com. “Our technology is also simpler in that we do not require an OEM to etch out cover glass to accommodate the distance limitations of other sensors, which can be a prohibitively expensive proposition.”

Key benefits concerning Vkansee’s sensors include: reduction of costs, reduction of sensor size and reduced power requirements, which according to Chaikin afford manufacturers with greater competitive advantages for both logical and physical security deployments.

“Importantly, because our sensors are optical, we capture images at better resolution,” states Chaikin. “The high resolution means higher security, because there is more data to discriminate between real and spoofed fingerprints, which is a growing concerning for winning consumer confidence.”

With Chinese-based manufacturing facilities and a team in New York City, Vkansee will further develop the sensors this year to improve on already existing technology in mobile devices as the U.S. market begins a full adoption of mobile payment processing. According to Chaikin, Vkansee’s interactions with OEMs confirms that market demand is gravitating to smaller sensors, and that such technologies, in conjunction with pinhole imaging, will change markets.

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  fingerprint technology  |  optical sensor  |  under display  |  Vkansee