Qualcomm has announced its new second-generation in-display fingerprint sensor called 3D Sonic Gen 2. Many other brands use optical in-display fingerprint solutions, while Qualcomm unveiled ultrasonic which uses sound waves to scan for 3D features in a user’s fingerprint. The second-generation Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor gives 50% faster than its predecessor and 77% larger.
In the previous-generation, the activation area was quite small, and it was difficult to accurately find the scanner by feel alone. The first-generation scanner was has a 4 x 9 mm area, while the second sensor will measure 8 x 8 mm and also allows the sensor to pick up 1.7X more biometric information. The new sensor will also measure only 0.2mm thin at the scan area, which means it can enable the possibility of integrating in-display scanners on flexible panels of foldable devices.
The first generation of Qualcomm’s 3D Sonic Sensor first comes in Samsung’s Galaxy S10, Note10, S20, and Note20 series and its performance and dependability were often questionable because the Accuracy and speed were not up to mark with other optical in-display solutions from Chinese OEMs like OnePlus and Huawei, many of which currently use quicker and more accurate optical solutions like versus ultrasonic fingerprint sensor.
Qualcomm has also said that the second-gen 3D Sonic Sensor will debut in smartphones “in early 2021”. Samsung is expected to use this new in-display sensor on the upcoming smartphone Galaxy S21 series on January 14th, 2021 in the Galaxy Unpacked event.
