The price war of off screen fingerprints has resumed, and second-line manufacturers are expected to win 30% of the market this year?

At present, off screen optical fingerprint has become the standard configuration of medium and high-end smart phones .

according to IHS Markit expect ,2019 Annual off screen fingerprint shipments are expected to grow 6 times , Reach near 1.8 Billion pieces . According to the prediction of Tianfeng securities ,2019 Annual off screen fingerprint mobile phone shipments will reach 2.8 Billion parts , The annual growth rate is as high as 900-1000%. in addition , According to the report of burning knowledge consulting , To 2023 year , The market scale of off screen fingerprint sensing module will reach about RMB 170 One hundred million yuan , It is estimated that 2018-2023 The compound annual growth rate in is as high as 106%.

Facing such a market , Fingerprint identification manufacturers are also constantly launching new solutions to compete . Previously, fingerprint chip manufacturers mainly competed for unlocking speed 、 Accuracy rate 、 Security 、 Cost, etc . And now with the smartphone camera （ Flagship began to take four shots 、 Five shot ） The increasing number , Especially with 5G The mobile phone market broke out , Many devices, including antennas, are added inside the mobile phone , It also puts forward higher requirements for structural design .

In response to this change , Huiding Technology launched a smaller 、 Thickness is only convex lens scheme 1/10 Ultra thin under screen optical fingerprint scheme , And has been adopted by many mobile phone manufacturers .

however , According to the analysis report of Nomura Orient International Securities , This year, 3 There are signs in January , Some smart phone companies began to reduce, originally expected in 2020 The fingerprint recognition project under the ultra-thin screen carried out in the second half of the year , And turn your attention back to the traditional fingerprint recognition under the lens optical screen .

According to the observation of Nomura Orient International Securities , It comes down to the following factors ：

1） Design degradation （ From ultra-thin screen to lens type optical screen ） Begin to appear ;

So far, , Huawei is the largest user of fingerprint recognition under the ultra-thin screen （P Series with the Mate series ）, The second is Xiaomi 、OPPO and vivo. Nomura Orient International Securities forecast 2021 Nianhuawei will apply lens optical recognition in a large number of medium and high-end products , Include P Series with the Mate Most models of the series . And others like OPPO And other domestic brands may also follow Huawei's pace to cut costs .

In such a situation , Nomura predicts that the demand for ultra-thin screen fingerprint recognition is 2020 In about 3500 Ten thousand units , and 2021 The annual demand is about 1500 Ten thousand units , Well below market expectations 7000-9000 Ten thousand units . in fact ,2020 The sales volume of lens optical recognition in may also be due to medium 、 The sales volume of high-end models has been negatively affected , And some mid-range smartphones may be further degraded to using side capacitive recognition , Thus further squeezing the off screen fingerprint recognition market .

2） Second tier chip suppliers （ Such as thinking and making micro 、 Aegis shares 、 Lianyong technology, etc ） The technology of lens optical recognition is gradually narrowing the gap with the leading enterprise huiding Technology ;

Nomura believes that second-line chip manufacturers , Such as siliwei and aegis , If the product quality can be guaranteed , May be in 2020 It has occupied the Chinese market since the fourth quarter of the year 20%-30% Market share , And have certain market influence . stay 2020 Before the middle of the year , The market share of huiding technology once reached 90% above . If 2020 Since the second half of the year, second tier manufacturers have been able to produce in large quantities while ensuring product quality , Its market position will be 2021 Rapid improvement in , After all, domestic smart phone manufacturers have a strong willingness to reduce costs .

As mentioned above , The main way for second-line chip factories to seize market share will be through radical price war . Based on Prediction 2020 From the end of the year to 2021 At the beginning of the year, lens optical identification chip / The price of the module will be reduced to 1.5-2.0/3.0-3.5 dollar , The price reduction of optical products will further reduce the attractiveness of ultra-thin screen products .

Besides , The price reduction of optical products will also put pressure on the side capacitive products , Manufacturers may face the dilemma of shrinking the market or reducing the price . Although we believe that the market share of orfig and Qiuti technology should be relatively stable , However, the decline in market demand and prices will still have a significant impact on its revenue and profits .

3） Considering that the industry competition will gradually change to fierce , The price and profit margin of off screen fingerprint identification chips and modules may be in 2020 End of year and 2021 The year showed a rapid downward trend .

Although in the last two years , Off screen fingerprint recognition scheme has become the standard configuration of many medium and high-end smart phones , But at present, all the fingerprints under the optical screen used in smart phones need AMOLED Screen to cooperate , because AMOLED The screen is self illuminating , And no backlight is required , Very thin , It has good light transmittance and other characteristics , It also makes AMOLED The fingerprint identification sensor under the screen can capture AMOLED The light from the screen shines on the user's finger fingerprint and then reflects back , So as to realize fingerprint recognition .

Again , Because the recognition distance of ultrasonic wave is limited , To realize off screen fingerprint recognition, you also need AMOLED Screen to match .

and LCD The screen structure is complex and AMOLED The screen is completely different ,LCD The screen doesn't glow , It requires a backlight , The overall module thickness is high , The existing ones are applicable to AMOLED Off screen fingerprint technology , It doesn't apply to LCD screen .

and AMOLED Panel has been widely used by many mobile phone manufacturers in recent years , Its originally high price has been gradually reduced . This also further promotes the AMOLED The popularity of under screen fingerprints .

however , at present AMOLED Panel and LCD The price difference of the panel is still several dollars , And LCD Screen mobile phones still have a large shipment , Especially in the medium and low-end mobile phones with huge market demand , although OLED Screen with LCD The price difference of the screen has narrowed , But for low-end smart phones that are price sensitive , Cost is still an important factor .

therefore , This has also prompted many manufacturers to start developing products that can be applied to LCD Off screen fingerprint recognition technology . According to xinzhixun's understanding , Huiding Technology 、 Shanghai Luoji 、 Fushi Technology 、 Beijing Oriental 、 Divine Shield 、 Tianma 、TCL Huaxing and other manufacturers are actively developing LCD Off screen fingerprint recognition technology , And many have entered the state of mass production . Besides ,TCL Huaxing also announced , It is expected to launch full screen single point on-screen fingerprint technology this year ,2021 Full Screen multi-point on-screen fingerprint technology will be launched in .

It's important to point out that , Whether it is full screen single point , Or Full Screen multi-point on-screen fingerprint recognition , There are great challenges for the current optical under screen fingerprint scheme and ultrasonic under screen fingerprint scheme .

According to a source , Qualcomm is planning to 2021 In the first half of, the sensing range of its ultrasonic fingerprint recognition technology was changed from the current 4×9mm And 8×8mm Up to the 20×30mm, But there is still a big gap from full screen fingerprint recognition .

in addition , According to the current weakening market demand and the changes of smart phone portfolio , Can't be sure in 2020-2021 During the year, whether the market still has the space to meet the large-scale application of high-cost large-area ultrasonic fingerprint recognition technology .

Compared with ultrasonic technology , Fingerprint recognition technology under large-area optical screen still faces greater problems ： The induction range scheme must be adjusted , By the photosensitive element （CMOS） The image sensing scheme is converted to thin film transistors （TFT） Array solutions , This means that the business partnership needs to change significantly （ The partner will be CMOS Camera module manufacturer changed to TFT LCD Display screen manufacturer ）. The biggest problem with this solution is the application TFT Quantum efficiency of the photodiode of the process （10%+） lower than CMOS（40+）, This means rising costs （ You need to stack layers to improve sensitivity ）, And yield 、 Performance degradation .

Many investors are also interested in full screen three in one chips （FTDDI） Are interested in the trend , But Nomura Orient International Securities believes FTDDI Not exactly a market trend . First ,FTDDI It can only be realized when recognition is applied under a large screen , However, there are still many difficulties to be overcome in large area recognition technology ; secondly , Touch and display driver integration （TDDI） Already in LCD On the screen , Adding additional fingerprint sensing means adding 6-8 Layer extra mask （ Compared with the current low-temperature polysilicon screen technology 10-12 Layer has been significantly improved ）, This will lead to a decline in yield 、 Higher cost and lower performance .

edit ： Smart core - Ranger sword

source ： Nomura Orient International Securities