Samsung making progress on producing a fingerprint reader embedded under a phone's display

Thanks to the Infinity Display employed on the Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung Galaxy S8+ and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, there is no room for a front-facing fingerprint scanner on these models. The manufacturer tried to have the biometric reader embedded under the display, but the technology was too complex to get this done. Instead, the fingerprint scanner was placed near the rear-facing camera on all three models.

Despite recent reports stating that Android manufacturers are now focusing on facial recognition instead of a display embedded fingerprint scanner, Samsung is not giving up on putting the scanner under the front glass. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo sent a note to clients today in which he reiterated an earlier prediction he made back in August. At that time, Kuo said that the 2018 Samsung Galaxy Note 9 would be Sammy's first phone to sport a fingerprint scanner embedded under the display.

According to someone who has seen Kuo's note dated today, the analyst says that there are four companies seeking Samsung's business for an under-glass fingerprint scanner. The four firms are Synaptics, BeyondEyes, Samsung subsidiary Samsung LSI and Egis. While the latter supplies Samsung with standard fingerprint scanners, BeyondEyes and Samsung LSI have already passed along samples to Samsung; those two are considered the front runners to supply Samsung with the technology.


Kuo now sees the under-glass fingerprint scanner as a placeholder until Samsung develops its own version of Face ID. While Samsung does have an iris scanner that can be used to unlock its flagship models, it does not use 3D sensing and 2D can easily be tricked by photos and other methods.

source: BusinessInsiders