Samsung Could Face Issues with Fingerprint Sensor, Says Reports

By Prarthito

| Published: Tuesday, March 4, 2014, 14:32 [IST]

All this time, before Samsung's big announcement of its Galaxy S5 at this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC 2014) event, of all the rumored features that were said to be arriving with the device, one feature caught notice of all those waiting to get a hold of the device. The feature was, of course, the fingerprint sensor.

And while Samsung delivered on that promise (a rumor, rather), it seems like the company is currently facing a few manufacturing issues with the in-house sensors for detecting fingerprints related to mass manufacturing the sensors. The South Korean manufacturer is said to be in an "embarrassing situation" for having low sensor yields, and is now looking to bring a third party vendor on board to address the problem.

Samsung Could Face Issues with Fingerprint Sensor, Says Reports

As reported by Sammobile, "It is claimed that negotiations are underway between Samsung and Crucialtec. In addition to trackpads, Crucialtec is a major manufacturer of fingerprint sensors. It is said that Samsung will manufacture sensors along with Crucialtec to meet the launch deadline for the Galaxy S5."

Going by the previous reports, Samsung was initially expected to consider a third party to manufacture the sensor that will be used in the device. But then, the South Korean giant decided on making the sensor in-house.

The reason behind this was that other vendors would not be able to make the massive number of sensors that would be required for a device like the Galaxy S5, as the device is likely to see sales in the tens of millions before the end of the year.

As you may already know, and those who are not aware as to how the fingerprint sensor works out, the S5's fingerprint scanner is present within the home button, similar to the Apple iPhone 5S, although they work differently.

For the sake of comparison, while Apple's technology uses a press and hold action to unlock the device, that of Samsung requires the user to swipe vertically across the home button to register his or her print.