Qualcomm Announces Advanced Fingerprint Scanning and Authentication Technology.

Capable of Scanning Through Display, Thick Glass and Metal with Underwater Operation, Heartbeat and Blood Flow Detection

At Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2017, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated today announced Qualcomm® Fingerprint Sensors, next-generation ultrasonic fingerprint solutions which bring new and enhanced features to the previous generation Qualcomm® Snapdragon Sense™ ID fingerprint technology. 

The suite of features consists of sensors for Display, Glass and Metal, detection of directional gestures, and underwater fingerprint match and device wake-up. It is also the first commercially announced integrated ultrasonic-based mobile solution to detect heart beat and blood flow for improved mobile authentication experiences.

“We are excited to announce Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors because they can be designed to support sleeker, cutting-edge form factors, unique mobile authentication experiences, and enhanced security authentication,” said Seshu Madhavapeddy, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “This provides OEMs and operators with the ability to offer truly distinct, differentiated devices with added value on truly groundbreaking new devices.”

Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensor for Display is the mobile industry’s first commercially announced multi-functional ultrasonic solution capable of scanning through OLED display stacks of up to 1200um, along with enrolling and matching, and Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors for Glass and Metal are the first commercially announced to scan through up to 800 µm of cover glass and up to 650 µm of aluminum, an improvement over the previous generation’s 400 µm capability for glass or metal.

Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors are designed as both an integrated solution with Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ Mobile Platforms, and as standalone sensors that can be used with other non-Snapdragon Platforms. Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors for Glass and Metal are designed to be compatible with the recently announced Snapdragon 660 and 630 Mobile Platforms, and Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors for Display, Glass and Metal are designed to be compatible with future Snapdragon Mobile Platforms and non-Snapdragon platforms.

The new suite of features, compared to the previous generation, supports more design flexibility for operators and original equipment manufacturers (OEM) by making it easier to differentiate products with unique form factors and advanced features and designs. Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors for Glass and Metal are expected to be available to OEMs this month, and are expected to arrive in commercial devices in the first half of 2018. Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensor for Display is expected to be available for OEMs to evaluate in the fourth quarter of 2017.

With Vivo Communication Technology Co. Ltd., Qualcomm Technologies will be demonstrating Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors for Display and Metal using modified versions of the VIVO XPlay 6. Qualcomm Technologies will also be demonstrating Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors for Glass using a modified device designed for demo purposes only. All demonstrations can be found at Qualcomm Technologies’ booth W5.E90 (Hall W5) at MWC Shanghai.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 to Bring enhaced dual camera support and fast LTE to Mid range smartphones and tablets.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 Mobile Platform to Bring 14nm FinFET Process, Enhanced Dual-Camera Support and Fast LTE Connectivity to Mid-Range Smartphones and Tablets.

At Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2017, Qualcomm Incorporated announced that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., has introduced the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 450 Mobile Platform, a new entry to the Snapdragon 400 Mobile Platform tier. Catered to mid-range smartphones and tablets, the Snapdragon 450 is the first in its tier to use 14nm FinFET process and is designed to deliver significant improvements in battery life, graphics and compute performance, imaging and LTE connectivity over its predecessor, the Snapdragon 435 Mobile Platform.

The Snapdragon 450 Mobile Platform focuses on improvements compared to its predecessor in four key categories of features:

Improved CPU and GPU: Higher performing octa-core ARM Cortex A53 CPU results in 25 percent increase in compute performance compared to its predecessor. Additionally, the integrated Qualcomm® Adreno™ 506 GPU delivers a 25 percent increase in graphics performance over the Snapdragon 435.

Battery life: Power management improvements result in up to four additional hours of usage time compared to the Snapdragon 435, as well as up to a 30 percent reduction in power when gaming, helping consumers stay connected and productive for much longer. The Snapdragon 450 also comes with Qualcomm® Quick Charge™ 3.0 support, which can charge a typical smartphone from zero to 80 percent in about 35 minutes.

Camera and multimedia: The Snapdragon 450 is the first in the 400-tier to support real-time Bokeh (Live Bokeh) effects. It is also designed to improve on previous generations by including support for enhanced dual camera at 13+13MP, or single camera support up to 21MP; hybrid autofocus; and 1080p video capture and playback at up to 60fps, enabling slow motion capture. 

The Snapdragon 450 also includes support for 1920x1200 full HD displays, as well as the Qualcomm® Hexagon™ DSP, which enables multimedia, camera and sensor processing at greater performance and lower power than the previous generation.

Connectivity and USB: Users will enjoy fast LTE connectivity with the Snapdragon X9 LTE modem, which utilizes 2x20MHz carrier aggregation in both downlink and uplink for peak speeds of 300 Mbps and 150 Mbps respectively, support for a large number of mobile networks with Snapdragon All Mode, and 802.11ac with MU-MIMO support. The Snapdragon 450 also supports USB 3.0 which is first in its tier to support fast USB data transfer.

“We’ve made many recent changes to the Snapdragon Mobile Platforms as part of our vision to deliver the most advanced mobile functionality at the best possible value, and the Snapdragon 450 Mobile Platform is another realization of that vision,” said Kedar Kondap, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “With the Snapdragon 450, users are going to see a dramatically improved level of performance, connectivity, battery life and imaging performance.”

To date, more than 1900 designs have launched or are in the pipeline across the Snapdragon 400 tier mobile platforms. The Snapdragon 450 is expected to begin commercial sampling to customers in Q3 2017, and is expected to be available in consumer devices by the end of 2017.