Synaptics debuts new line of optical fingerprint sensors that work under glass, a feature expected to be included in next generation smartphones
Don Reisinger / Tom's Guide :
Context & Ripple Effects
This debut is the opening move in the under-display fingerprint race. A year later, Synaptics said it had perfected an in-display sensor now in mass production with a top five OEM, confirming the 2016 announcement turned into shipping hardware rather than a lab demo.
It also set up a two-technology contest: within six months, Vivo was demoing Qualcomm's ultrasonic sensors that work under glass, metal, and water, giving phone makers an optical-versus-ultrasonic choice for the same bezel-free design goal.
First-order effects
- Smartphone OEMs gain a way to embed fingerprint readers beneath the display glass, removing the home-button constraint on next-generation industrial designs.
- Synaptics extends its sensor portfolio beyond capacitive touch into biometrics, competing directly for the in-display slot that Qualcomm's ultrasonic line is also targeting.
Second-order effects
- Phone makers can pair the under-glass reader with software navigation buttons instead of physical ones — a direction Synaptics' own later sensor, scheduled for Q3 2017 mass production, explicitly supports with force detection and swipe gestures.
- Biometric authentication becomes multi-modal at the component level: Synaptics followed within weeks with a multi-factor system combining fingerprint and facial recognition across phones, tablets, and laptops, pushing rivals to bundle modalities too.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the fingerprint reader migrates from a discrete button to a region of the display itself — a shift whose growing pains showed up when Qualcomm's first-generation ultrasonic sensor in the Galaxy S10 drew mixed results, prompting a larger-input-area redesign by late 2019.
- Display-integrated sensing turns the screen into the device's primary trust boundary, making sensor placement and reliability a competitive differentiator among OEMs rather than a commodity part.
The trend: Fingerprint sensing is moving from dedicated buttons to sensors embedded under the display glass, with optical and ultrasonic approaches racing to own that position inside flagship smartphones.