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With the launch of the new product line, the company aims to take 40 percent of the global fingerprint sensor market which it expects to be worth about USD800 million by the end of 2004.
Fingerprint recognition is a personal authentication system seen as essential technology for maintaining privacy in e-commerce transactions and controlling access to electronic databases.
According to the company, sophisticated authentication systems already use fingerprint sensor technology and the rapid growth of broadband Internet is expected to expand demand to smartcards and mobile phones.
Fujitsu's entry into the business follows its licensing of fingerprint sensor technology and authentication software from Veridicom Inc, based in Santa Clara, California.
A dedicated fingerprint sensor development centre, Fujitsu Microelectronics Inc (FMI), was established in San Jose, California, by the company last May. The focus of the facility will be on the development of capacitive fingerprint sensors which, because of their reliability, high image resolution and compactness will comprise over 95 percent of the market by 2004, according to the company.
According to Fujitsu, the plan is to supply "innovative, highly reliable authentication solutions" required for the broadband Internet by integrating a fingerprint sensor with an LSI chip for multi-function IC (Integrated circuit) cards incorporating Fujitsu's Ferroelectric RAM non-volatile memory device.
Fujitsu's capacitive fingerprint sensor to be introduced in October is a silicon-based semiconductor device that offers stable operation with the use of optics. The company claims the new devices will be designed to integrate with various types of control circuits, memory, interfaces and other technology.
The company also claims it consumes very low amounts of power and says the software preserves privacy by making it impossible to recreate a fingerprint image from the stored data.
Earlier this month, Fujitsu announced that it was to cut 16,400 jobs from its global workforce because of a slump in demand for its technology. The company employs 1,000 people in Northern Ireland and has two ICL subsidiary operations in Ireland but it was unclear how these would be affected.
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