FPC Highlights Low-Cost Sensor, Biometric Cards at MWC Shanghai

“Fingerprint Cards says the FPC1511 is likely to see commercial launches later this year or in early 2019.”

While a lot of news came out of the recently concluded Mobile World Congress Shanghai event, those in the mobile biometrics industry were likely paying close attention to what Fingerprint Cards had to say about its FPC1511 fingerprint sensor.

First announced this past June, it’s FPC’s most affordable fingerprint sensor to date, and a clear response to the shrinking average selling prices for capacitive fingerprint sensors in the mobile market. At MWC Shanghai, FPC revealed that prototypes of the new sensor are now available for OEMs and module suppliers, and asserted that full qualification of its solution is expected to be attained this quarter. That was likely welcome news for smartphone maker executives in attendance, with fingerprint sensors now proliferating across the price spectrum in mobile devices.

Fingerprint Cards says the FPC1511 is likely to see commercial launches later this year or in early 2019.

Meanwhile, the company also took the opportunity of MWC Shanghai to introduce attendees to its biometric payment card solution. The company had set up a snack trolley at its MWC stand, and invited guests to buy a coffee and a Swedish pastry using a payment card that could read their fingerprint to confirm the purchase. This kind of thing is widely expected to become very common as Mastercard and Visa prepare for mass commercialization of biometric payment cards, and FPC has been eager to stake its claim as a pioneering provider of the underlying biometric technology.

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August 20, 2018 – by Alex Perala