New Technology
S.K. Ganapathi, Fidelica’s president and CEO, belives that the proprietary technology that his company has developed rivals all fingerprint authentication devices in the market in terms of both functionality as well as in price. Additonally, as the device is essentially a chip roughly 15 mm by 16 mm in size, it is not a bulky stand alone product and can be easily embedded or incorportaed into keyboards and touchpads on a laptop.
Ganapathi explains that current technologies measure the distance between the finger and the sensor surface and then translate that measurement into an image. But a human finger is made up of ridges and valleys, and when placed on the sensor surface those miniscule valleys are not in touch with the surface of the sensor. By measuring the gap between those parts that are not touching the top of the recognition device and the sensor surface, current technologies are essentially gathering redundant, extraneous information. According to Ganapathi, the cumulative effect of these measurements leads to a distortion of the fingerprint image, reducing reliability of the authentication tool, once the finger is exposed to “environmentally induced sub-optimal conditions.” In other words, if a person has been caught in the rain and places a finger on an authentication device, the image produced will not match the one entered in the device’s database. This is because the thin film of water is an added layer that is included in the measurement of the distance between the finger and the sensor surface, making the image appear distorted.
Fidelica has solved this nagging problem, Ganapathi says, by developing a pressure sensing technology that measures the pressure each part of the finger exerts on the surface of the authentication tool, ignoring the valleys that are not in contact with it, instead of recording the distance.
“Each of the cells on our sensor is a pressure-measurement gauge,” he explains. “Our technology is concerned only with that part of the finger that is directly putting pressure on the sensor surface, so I end up with a print that corresponds to the part that touches and applies pressure on the sensor.
The water that sticks to the ridges of the finger, which is in contact with the surface, gets squeezed out as pressure is applied on the sensor surface. The result: a distortion-free, accurate image that can be repeated and reproduced faithfully every time, Ganapathi says with pride. Hence the company name, Fidelica, drawing from the word fidelity.
Commercializing the Technology
Admittedly, this is fascinating, but the real test will be in commercializing the technology. Waving aside some competing products from larger players like Infineon, Ganapathy explains that the reason fingerprint authentication has not yet seen mass adoption is because it is too expensive. That is innately related to the silicon used to make the sensors. The manufacturing cost of making a sensor chip, roughly the size of a postage stamp is about $20. But silicon is very susceptible to electrostatic discharge and has to be packaged carefully to prevent it from exploding. Packaging and driving the circuitry, therafter adds to the manufacturing cost of the chips and makes the device bulky, Ganapthi asserts.
When the product finally comes to market, after packaging and other costs, the cheapest one costs about $75, according to him. If computer makers, such as Dell or Compaq, buy them in large volumes, each device costs about $50. After they have added their own markup, the final price is $90, he says.
“Today, you can buy a Pentium processor that costs less than a fingerprint authentication tool,” Ganapathi declares. “Why would anyone pay $90 for this, if a PC costs $800?”
Recognizing the difficulty with silicon, Fidelica switched to large flat-panel displays, which can turn out several times as many chips as an expensive silicon wafer. But because silicon is essential to activate the device, each 15 mm by 16 mm chip has two sides fitted with silicon strips on the bottom surface.
Ganpathi says that the price of the Fidelica product will be in the “high single digits to teens,” because the cost of manufacturing is under $5. The company is partnering with a Taiwanese company and a Japanese company to manufacture the product. To market it, Fidelica is approaching keyboard makers and touch pad makers to incorporate the chip into their hardware. The product will be shipped in the second quarter of 2002 and depending on performance, the company hopes to go after the cell phone, credit card, PDA and smart card markets.
“Embed yourself and become a part of someone else’s business,” is how Ganapathi describes his business plan, drawing from how Fidelica’s chip can be incorportaed in any device.
