Fingerprint biometric market to reach $8.5B in 5 years

The market for biometric fingerprint sensors is expected to reach $8.5 billion by 2026 on 14.64 percent CAGR from 2021, driven by growth across a range of sectors and applications, according to new research from Imarc.

The growth in the fingerprint sensor market may leave out payment cards, however, as GlobalData Payments Analyst Chris Dinga writes for Electronic Payment International that digital wallets will be the dominant payment form and make it unlikely that biometric payment cards will be widely adopted.

The Imarc study suggests the consumer electronics, government and law enforcement, aerospace, healthcare, defense and military, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), and the travel and immigration sectors will all see increased demand for fingerprint sensors, with integrations into smartphones, wearables and vehicles to launch engine operations and unlock phones, applications and door locks.

Dinga notes that GlobalData has observed a 26.4 percent increase in the number of transactions made in the UK with digital wallets during 2020. By contrast, credit card transactions were 8.8 percent lower during the year.

Mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay already use biometrics, through the native fingerprint or face biometrics sensors on devices, so the contactless payment cap does not apply to them anyway, he points out.

Dinga argues digital wallets are more secure and convenient, with a smaller environmental footprint than biometric payment cards.

FPC and STMicroelectronics update biometric card platform collaboration

Fingerprint Cards is working on a next-generation platform for biometric payment cards jointly with STMicroelectronics under a commercial agreement signed between the two companies. The partnership is an update of one signed last year to the companies’ new technology.

The partners say their STPayBio platform will enable efficiency in the key features of the biometric-system-on-card, with simple user enrollment and high performance throughout the transaction. STPayBio integrates the ST31 secure element and STM32 microcontroller with FPC’s T-Shape 2 sensor module and biometric payment software platform, which were recently approved by Mastercard.

The companies are working to optimize the integration of the parts to allow biometric payment cards to be easily manufactured using existing processes for global volume deployments with lower total product cost.

“Achieving this second step of STMicroelectronics and Fingerprints collaboration by providing a proven BSoC integrated solution, we are confirming our strong partnership with Fingerprints and have all the key ingredients to provide a commercial solution bringing increased level of security and convenience for issuers and card holders,” comments Laurent Degauque Marketing Director, Secure Microcontrollers, STMicroelectronics.

“Biometric payment cards can offer value to consumers across the globe, and demand is growing quickly now that we’re seeing commercial launches in Europe,” comments Michel Roig, SVP Business Line Payments & Access at Fingerprint Cards. “We’re proud to continue this collaboration to reduce cost and remove complexity from the integration process. This is breaking down major barriers for smaller, tier 2 card manufacturers to add biometric cards to their portfolio and, in turn, bring fast, frictionless and hygienic in-store payments to even more consumers.”

Samples will be available in Q3 2021, and the companies will work together on a go-to-market strategy.

Fingerprint Cards to be integrated by second top PC maker

FPC has also announced a design win with its second top-tier global PC manufacturer, with initial volume shipments expected at the end of 2021.

The PC maker, which is one of the three largest in the world, according to the announcement, will begin development of at least one product with FPC biometric technology. Fingerprint Cards now supplies two of the world’s three largest PC manufacturers, receiving a purchase order for several hundred thousand biometric sensors earlier this year.

“I am very pleased with this additional design win in the PC segment. We are poised for continued growth in this segment, providing the perfect way to add convenient and secure authentication to PCs, thus doing away with the hassle of using insecure passwords and PINs,” comments Ted Hansson, senior VP BL Mobile at Fingerprint Cards.

Article Topics

biometric cards  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  Fingerprint Cards  |  fingerprint recognition  |  fingerprint sensors  |  market report  |  pc  |  STMicroelectronics