Qualcomm announces world's largest fingerprint sensor for smartphones

Qualcomm 3D Sonic sensors power ultrasonic fingerprint readers on several mobile devices including Samsung Galaxy S10. Qualcomm 3D Sonic sensors live beneath a smartphone screen’s surface and provide single-touch authentication using sound waves instead of light to recognize users. At Snapdragon Tech Summit today, Qualcomm today announced 3D Sonic Max, the latest update to its ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. The new 3D Sonic Max sensor offers a recognition area that is 17x larger than the current 3D Sonic sensor, allowing for increased security via simultaneous two-finger authentication, increased speed and ease of use.

3D Sonic delivers high-performance protection across a wide range of conditions—dry, wet, and even contaminant exposure—and it’s faster compared to legacy solutions when fingers are wet.

Qualcomm 3D Sonic Max sensor will be available in smartphones in 2020. You can expect the upcoming Samsung’s flagship device Galaxy S11 to feature this new sensor.