With China- and Taiwan-based suppliers eager to expand their presence, prices of fingerprint sensors are likely to fall below US$5 in 2015, according to industry sources.
Taiwan-based Elan Microelectronics, FocalTech Systems, Egis Technology (Egistec), Pixart Imaging and Image Match Design (IMD) are all set to roll out their new fingerprint sensor solutions during the first half of 2015. Meanwhile, China-based IC design firms including Goodix and Silead will soon enter mass production of their in-house developed fingerprint sensors, the sources indicated.
Prices of fingerprint sensors currently are as high as US$7-8, the sources said.
The manufacturing cost for fingerprint sensors built using 0.18-micron process technology is around US$3, sources at Taiwan-based IC design houses disclosed. For suppliers, slashing their prices to US$5 is possible, the sources said.
Nevertheless, for suppliers incapable of competing with lower prices, they would be squeezed out of the market, the sources noted.
In other news, China- and Korea-based handset vendors are reportedly looking for cheaper fingerprint sensors for their products, industry sources observed. With lower-priced offerings, Elan has grabbed orders from Huawei, while IMD has reportedly attracted orders from Samsung. Silead has obtained orders from ZTE, the sources said. Meanwhile, FocalTech and Goodix have both secured new orders from China's second-tier handset brands.
