Today Qualcomm announced their 5G modem solutions at their Annual Snapdragon Tech Summit and that Chinese smartphone OEMs Xiaomi and Oppo will be introducing 5G smartphones in Q1 2020.

During their keynote Qualcomm introduced the new Qualcomm 3D Sonic Fingerprint Technology for superior under display fingerprint authentication. Alex Katouzian, senior vice president and general manager, mobile, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. announced 3D Sonic Max, the latest version of our ultrasonic fingerprint sensor.

3D Sonic Max offers a recognition area that is 17x larger than the previous generation, allowing for increased security via simultaneous two-finger authentication (illustrated in our cover graphic), increased speed and ease of use.

What the press release didn't say is that GIS and Qualcomm have jointly developed an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor that enables a higher recognition rate when compared to a capacitive sensing solution.

The ultrasonic sensor can detect fingerprint features underneath the skin surface, and thus is free from false identification results caused by natural sweat and oils on the skin when using a capacitive solution.

The ultrasonic fingerprint technology also allows under-display fingerprint sensing for the latest design of full-screen F-OLED mobile phones.

Coincidentally, the Economic News Daily out of Taiwan is reporting today that Apple will have a high level meeting at the GIS-KY Chundgdu Factory under the Hon Hai Group (that owns Foxconn) to discuss the cooperation of ultrasonic screen fingerprint recognition. The meeting will reportedly iron out production capacity, yield, price and other details.

While GIS had lost iPhone orders when Apple dropped their touch-fitting services for the iPhone's in-cell touch design, GIS believes that could win Apple's iPhone business back with their new under the display ultrasonic fingerprint recognition technology.

In addition, GIS also recently reported that it had entered the Mini LED field, and will be responsible for Apple iPad Mini LED module assembly in the future. This is likely where Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo  got his news from for yesterday's "prediction."  

A legal source pointed out that GIS was originally the main supplier of iPad touch panels. Now it is re-entering the Mini LED module, which will help improve the future gross profit margin.

Apple has sought GIS cooperation for both under-screen fingerprint identification and Mini LED module assembly, highlighting the GIS's impact on Apple Increased in importance.

The fingerprint recognition under the ultrasonic screen can achieve the thinnest materials and the highest accuracy, which is better than the fingerprint recognition under the optical screen.

Apple considers that GIS is a major partner of Hon Hai Group, has a sound financial status, is a reference designer of Qualcomm ultrasonic fingerprint recognition, and has Samsung's flagship machine cooperation experience. Regardless of capacity and yield, it meets mass production conditions, so Apple turned to GIS.

The fingerprint recognition under the screen is to hide the touch module under the display panel.

At the end of the day, if Apple is indeed going to introduce ultrasonic technology under the display on future iPhones as their 2017 granted patent suggests, then GIS is likely to be one of the leaders that Apple is likely to choose as supplier.