Which kind of fingerprint sensor will be better? Semiconductor or Optical?

There are two types of fingerprint sensors for Standalone access control in the market: 

one is an optical fingerprint sensor and the other is a semiconductor fingerprint sensor.

Below, S4A Sales representative Ms. Anna Zhang will introduce the advantages and disadvantages of these two fingerprint sensors, as below:

Advantages of semiconductor fingerprint recognition:

1. The semiconductor fingerprint recognition module only recognizes living fingerprints, which has high security, that is to say, the semiconductor fingerprint sensor can penetrate the skin surface layer, so the silicone simulated fingerprints rumored on the Internet basically do not play any role here. It can identify living fingerprint access control. The advantage is that fingerprints basically cannot be copied or imitated.

2. The semiconductor fingerprint recognition module has very high sensitivity and recognition accuracy

   Semiconductor fingerprint recognition is a capacitor array composed of tens of thousands of capacitors. The distance from the fingerprint ridges and valleys to the touch panel is collected to form fingerprint data. Compared with optical scanning, the accuracy is better, it can collect more accurate fingerprint details, and the collection speed is much faster.

3. The semiconductor fingerprint recognition module has a high recognition rate. The optical fingerprint sensor will be affected by the dryness and wetness and depth of the fingerprint during normal use, resulting in recognition errors and the phenomenon of unable to recognize fingerprints. Semiconductors can avoid these problems to the greatest extent.

In addition, semiconductors have low power consumption and small size, which are of great help to reduce the power consumption of biometric access control and reduce the size of the access controller unit.

Everything has 2 sides, if it with advantages, it also not 100% perfect products, Here is the shortcoming for semiconductor fingerprint recognition:

   1. The capacitive version of the semiconductor fingerprint recognition module is obviously more expensive than the tempered glass of the optical fingerprint module. Of course, the cost of other components is relatively higher than that of the optical fingerprint module, so the cost is higher.

  2. The semiconductor fingerprint recognition module is not easy to maintain. The collection window of the semiconductor fingerprint sensor will be affected by stains, sweat, and static electricity, and will be easily scratched. Therefore, it needs to be protected and maintained when using it, otherwise, the service life will be difficult to guarantee. All of S4A Fingerprint access control within 1-year quality guarantee, if up to 200pcs ZF-800series, you will get 2pcs fingerprint sensor for FREE.all the products we will do 72hours power-on testing continuously.

This is an optical fingerprint sensor. Some people see in the market that emits blue light or red light. Whether it emits red light or blue light, it is an optical fingerprint sensor.

 Advantages of optical fingerprint recognition

  1. The optical fingerprint recognition module has strong environmental adaptability. The optical fingerprint sensor collection window generally adopts toughened glass, which can enhance compression, abrasion, acid, and stain corrosion to a certain extent, and has good temperature adaptability to the working environment. And the surface is easy to clean, that is, it can be used in households, and can also be used in special environments such as humidity, high temperature, and dust.

  2. The optical fingerprint recognition module has good stability. The optical fingerprint recognition technology has been tested by the market for a long time and has been continuously improved. In addition, the optical fingerprint sensor has good adaptability to the market environment and has a long life in theory.

 3. The cost of the optical fingerprint recognition module is low. The optical fingerprint sensor has developed earlier and has a mature industry scale. It can be mass-produced in modules. Moreover, the raw materials used in the optical fingerprint sensor are relatively cheap, so the cost of the optical fingerprint sensor is generally Cheaper than the semiconductor fingerprint sensor.

 Shortcomings of optical fingerprint recognition

  1. The recognition accuracy of the optical fingerprint head has certain inherent defects. The optical fingerprint head is the fingerprint ridges and valleys that reflect different images of light. For users with shallow fingerprints, fingerprints too dry or peeling, it will be prone to misidentification.

  2. The power consumption of optical fingerprint recognition is relatively large, and the optical fingerprint sensor needs to emit strong light, so it needs more power than the semiconductor fingerprint sensor.

Author: Written by S4A-Access from S4A INDUSTRIAL CO.,LIMITED