Fingerprint sensors are an expected feature in smartphones, driven by biometric security and mobile payments, said an IHS report Monday. The sensors are also being used more in tablets and notebook PCs, said IHS. The iPhone leads the segment in fingerprint sensors, with 499 million shipped in 2015, up from 316 million in 2014, said IHS. Growth will continue each year until 2020 when fingerprint sensor shipments will peak at 1.6 billion units, it said. The highest revenue growth will be in the short term “as the market becomes more competitive and price erosion occurs," said analyst Jamie Fox. Apple, which acquired fingerprint-sensor maker AuthenTec in 2012, led the fingerprint sensor market in 2015 on the popularity of the iPhone 6s and iPads, said Fox. Sweden-based Fingerprint Cards, supplier to customers in China and elsewhere, tied Samsung supplier Synaptics in unit shipments last year but ranked second behind AuthenTec in revenue at $316 million, said the research firm. “FPC reacted very quickly” to the industry trend away from swipe sensors, said Fox. The current market for fingerprint sensors relies on capacitive sensors, but Qualcomm will soon lead a transition to ultrasonic sensors that are “even more resistant to user impersonation,” said Fox. InvenSense is expected to introduce its own line of ultrasonic fingerprint sensors in 2017, Fox said.

The FCC should move forward with the competitive navigation recommendation from the FCC Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee, seven public interest groups said in a letter to Chairman Tom Wheeler Tuesday. Viewers who can more easily access online and cable programming on the same device would be easier for programmers to reach without going through pay-TV carriers, said the letter from Common Cause, Demand Progress, Free Press, Fight for the Future, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, New America’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge. PK had representatives on the DSTAC and is part of the Consumer Video Choice Coalition, the organization of entities backing the competitive navigation recommendation. Along with opening up paths to consumers for programmers, a more competitive set-top box market would make it harder for pay-TV companies to ”price-gouge” consumers, the letter said. “What Americans need now is for the FCC to help create ways to bypass the cable gatekeeper -- not for it to allow cable to continue strengthening its grip.”

Qualcomm and TDK are forming a joint venture for delivery of RF front-end (RFFE) modules and RF filters into integrated systems for mobile and IoT devices, drones, robotics and automotive applications, they said Wednesday. Called RF360 Holdings Singapore, the venture will draw on TDK’s capabilities in micro-acoustic RF filtering, packaging and module integration and Qualcomm’s wireless technologies expertise, said the companies. Qualcomm and TDK will expand their collaboration on sensors and wireless charging, they said. Growing demands in mobile communications require current and future smartphones to support dozens of frequency bands for 2G, 3G, 4G LTE and 5G, along with connectivity for wireless LAN, satellite navigation and Bluetooth. In addition, the convergence of 4G mobile communications and the IoT means device makers must achieve “new levels of miniaturization, integration and performance, especially for the RFFE,” said the companies. Module solutions will be essential to supporting increasing complexity in the RFFE and RF360 and Qualcomm Technologies will be well positioned to design products from the modem/transceiver to the antenna in a “fully integrated system,” they said. RF360 Holdings will initially be owned 51 percent by Qualcomm Global Trading and 49 percent by TDK subsidiary Epcos. Under the agreement, filter and module design and manufacturing assets, plus related patents, will be carved out from TDK and its subsidiaries and be largely acquired by RF360 Holdings, with certain assets being acquired directly by Qualcomm affiliates, said the companies. The aggregate transaction value is expected to be about $3 billion. The agreement, subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions, is expected to close by early 2017.

Survey results on the technologies, manufacturing methods and standards needed for the commercialization of flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) will be released in a FlexTech Alliance webinar set for Tuesday at 1 p.m. EST, the alliance said Tuesday. The alliance canvassed 90 end users, manufacturers and suppliers in November and December, and the preliminary findings show “technical challenges” abound in FHE design and production, it said. The webinar will cover reliability requirements for FHE devices and the standards that are most needed for FHE performance characteristics and testing, it said. The Defense Department gave the alliance a $75 million grant last summer to run a public-private “manufacturing innovation institute” for FHE aimed at developing semiconductors, large-area displays and “advanced processing capabilities” for fashioning flexible electronic devices (see 1508280038).

OWC announced pre-orders for a 10-port USB-C dock with SD card reader and gigabit ethernet support. OWC USB-C Dock ($159) has five full-power USB 3.1 ports, two high-power Type-A ports for fast mobile device charging, two USB Type-A ports and one USB Type-C port for the MacBook and other PCs, said the company. The dock's 80-watt power adapter can charge the new MacBook plus USB peripherals, said the company. Users can connect an external display via an HDMI port and transfer photos and video from an SD card, it said. A combination audio port accepts a microphone and headphone, it said.

Calling objections to an alternative to the pay-TV "gatekeeper model" for consumers to be able to choose independent user interfaces joining linear and over-the-top TV "non-issues," TiVo told aides to all FCC members there's no reason to delay issuing an NPRM on the agency's Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee (DSTAC) report. "Any remaining concerns can be addressed as part of a rulemaking proceeding, and are not reasons for the Commission to delay" the NPRM, TiVo General Counsel Matt Zinn and outside lawyers for the company said, according to a filing posted Friday in docket 15-64. "Despite some recent revisionist history being put forth by opponents of competition, Section 629 has always been about extending the principle of Carterfone to the video navigation devices market and giving consumers a choice among retail products for the consumer interface," it said of the Communications Act section on a retail market for video navigation devices. An NPRM on the DSTAC report may soon circulate (see 1512150072). NCTA pushed back against TiVo. Despite the company's comparison of Section 629 to Carterfone, "the FCC has repeatedly found that the telephone network does not provide a proper analogy for video," NCTA General Counsel Neal Goldberg responded by email. "From the beginning of its work implementing Section 629 in 1998, it said that ‘the telephone networks do not provide a proper analogy to the issues in this [video device] proceeding due to the numerous differences in technology between Part 68 telephone networks and MVPD networks.’ It reiterated that conclusion in 2010.”

Non-Apple brands and IC makers are responding to Apple’s use of Force Touch technology in the Apple Watch and 3D Touch in the iPhone 6 with their own force-sensing solutions for high-end and mid-range smartphones, said an IHS report Thursday. In 2016, worldwide force-sensing module shipments are expected to grow 317 percent to reach 461 million units, and 24 percent of new smartphones shipped will include the technology, IHS said. Touch controller IC makers are “aggressively expanding production of in-cell and on-cell touch displays to further improve touch interfaces for smartphone users,” said analyst Calvin Hsieh. Touch controller IC makers for smartphones are developing new features to spur growth in the maturing touch panel market, said Hsieh.

GreenPeak Technologies introduced a wireless LED lighting solution based on its GP651 communication chip that supports ZigBee and IEEE 802.15.4 communication protocols. It supports one-, two- or four-channel LED bulbs, which GreenPeak said Monday allows manufacturers to design bulbs that can be dimmed to a warm white or create a colorful scene. Settings and time schedules can be controlled by a smart home system, smartphone or a basic wireless switch, said the company. The GP651 is a low-cost, small footprint (QFN32), single-chip solution, GreenPeak said.

The Consumer Video Choice Coalition-supported security solution from the FCC Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee report would implement conditional access digital rights management and link protection, said Google Vice President-Access Services Milo Medin in a meeting Tuesday with FCC Chief Technologist Scott Jordan and Media Bureau staff. That is according to an ex parte filing posted in docket 15-64 Thursday.

Qualcomm received “courtesy copies” of two Statements of Objections from the European Commission “relating to separate matters involving Qualcomm’s chipset business,” the company said Tuesday. It emphasized that the statements aren't “a determination of the final outcome of the investigation,” but give Qualcomm up to four months to respond to the preliminary allegations. Qualcomm has been cooperating with the EC “since the outset of these matters,” and it welcomes “the chance to formally respond,” it said. “We look forward to demonstrating that competition in the sale of wireless chips has been and remains strong and dynamic, and that Qualcomm’s sales practices have always complied with European competition law.” The EC informed Qualcomm “of its preliminary conclusions that the company may have illegally paid a major customer for exclusively using its chipsets and sold chipsets below cost with the aim of forcing a competitor,” Icera, “out of the market," in “potential breach” of antitrust rules, the commission said Tuesday in a news release. Under those rules, “dominant companies have a responsibility not to abuse their powerful market position by restricting competition,” it said.