Touch Biometrix a leading fingerprint sensor developer are pleased to announce their partnership with SystematIC, a world class IC design house based in The Netherlands as part of their go to market strategy.
Touch Biometrix are a fabless developer of a unique range of capacitive fingerprint sensors called TCAP (Transistor CAPacitance) that are manufactured using thin-film transistors (TFTs) on glass or plastic. Founded in April 2018 Touch Biometrix have so far received £2 million in funding (US$2.6 million) to take their first products to market in Q4 2021.
The company’s first commercially available product will be a large area FAP60 sensor to replace bulk optical sensors. The 500ppi 3D image sensors will have a thin form factor coupled with a significantly lower cost of ownership than existing optical technologies.
Touch Biometrix CEO Mike Cowin said “although the volumes for FAP60 sensors is not as high as for other sized sensors this is an ideal entry point for us as there is currently a big demand for a slim form factor, high performance FAP60 sensor. We expect the first samples to come off our production partners lines in Asia in November this year and we are very excited about issuing these samples to our customer pipeline.
In parallel we are also working on a solution for full screen finger on display sensors for smartphones. This is as a solution to the current challenge that is widely viewed as the fingerprint sensor ‘holy grail’ for smartphones applications to replace localised ultrasonic or optical in display sensors. The demand for test samples is truly significant with routine requests for quotes in the 10’s of millions.
Our partnership with SystematIC is an important step forward in our go to market strategy. SystematIC will be delivering our read out IC (ROIC) designed in house at Touch Biometrix and tailored to our TCAP fingerprint sensor range. We’ll be in a position to issue full FAP60 half modules, with our own bespoke ROIC and drive electronics as early as November this year.
This will offer our customers a sensor and ROIC solution for a myriad of applications where they can be confident in the knowledge that our unique sensor and ROIC solution will allow them to deliver ground breaking biometric solutions to their customers for both large and small area applications.
SystematIC were the stand out company in the bidding process, with an exceptional track record of successful delivery of IC products. Also being based in The Netherlands is a plus as our R&D offices are based in Eindhoven on the High Tech Campus.”
Richard Visee CEO of SystematIC said “we are delighted to have been selected by Touch Biometrix to deliver their first bespoke ROIC based on hard won intellectual property they have developed over the last 2 years. This is such an exciting project as the sensor technology is truly unique and we expect it to dominate the fingerprint biometric market in the coming years. To be part of that journey is something to be proud of .”
