IDEX Biometrics : The Incredible Journey of TrustedBio™ from Concept to Market Leader

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The Incredible Journey of TrustedBio™ from Concept to Market Leader

Did you know that IDEX Biometrics has started receiving mass production TrustedBio™ sensors? Learn about the incredible journey of TrustedBio from concept to market leader and why TrustedBio™ will be the fingerprint sensor of choice for Gen 3 cards.

Almost exactly 12 months ago, TrustedBio was just a design document, a bunch of Cadence design files and a set of PowerPoint slides describing an audacious roadmap to revolutionize biometric cards. This roadmap was presented to Idemia in response to an RFQ. Idemia reviewed all the responses from all the fingerprint sensor companies and selected TrustedBio for their 3^rd generation cards. As they say, the rest is history.

Today, as I write this article, we are testing production sensors built by our mass production supply chain. We are making final software updates in preparation to help our partners with their initial manufacturing builds and certifications.

This is the story of an incredible engineering accomplishment. To understand TrustedBio, one needs to start by looking back a few years. While IDEX has been incorporated for 25 years, it underwent a total transformation a few years ago to become a complete end to end system design and product development company. Most of us joined IDEX in the last few years as we recruited world class talent around the globe. We have major design centers in the US, UK, and Europe with technical support throughout the world including Europe, US, and Asia.

TrustedBio™ Production Sensors

As part of our transformation, we redirected 100% of our effort towards biometric cards. Our Gen 2 sensors were developed in 65nm technology and were the first IDEX sensors that enabled contactless operation. Gen 2 sensors are in production having received certifications with multiple global payment networks including the most recent one with China UnionPay.

Simultaneously, we developed extensive research and modeling tools to study biometric card systems. We built a robotic system that can measure precisely in 3D the field strength and available energy that we can harvest around a point-of-sale terminal. We developed silicon and software simulation tools that can accurately predict power, Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), processing speed and biometric performance. We studied the security requirements of all the payment networks. We invested in biometric algorithms. We worked closely with manufacturing companies to understand and solve challenges with sensor placement and lamination.

But of much more importance than becoming proficient in all the technical details of biometric cards, we recognized we could completely change the competitive landscape for fingerprint sensors. An impartial observer would recognize that our competition has sold billions of sensors while IDEX has sold very few. A new player needs to do more than just be a little better or cheaper. Developing a sensor that is 20% or even 40% cheaper would probably get us in the game. With off-chip sensing that is an easy goal. But that is not enough.

Our most important insight was that we could develop a solution that even if our competition gave away their sensor for free, literally zero, a TrustedBio biometric card would still be significantly less expensive and much easier to manufacture. This insight is the fundamental reason TrustedBio is the sensor of choice for Gen 3 cards.

We wanted to dramatically reduce the cost of biometric cards by integrating everything except for the secure controller while achieving power, performance, and costs that far exceed competition. Our goals were:

• Best in class power consumption: Enable fast biometric performance at the lowest field strengths.
• Fastest biometric processing: Optimize MCU design so it would run faster than any other processor at any field strength.
• Lowest cost: Integrate everything except the secure controller so that a TrustedBio card would be less expensive even if our competition gave away their sensor for free.

That brings us to the beginning of 2020 with the TrustedBio design document, a bunch of Cadence design files and a set of PowerPoint slides.

The key to understanding this project is to understand the major risks. The biggest risk by far was the ASIC itself. Any problem requiring a mask level change can setback a project by 4 to 6 months. The second risk was the polymer substrate and sensor assembly. The substrate is a very thin multilayer circuit board. Modifications to the substrate design take 4 to 6 weeks to work through the supply chain. We always expect several design iterations before the final design. The 3^rd risk was software readiness.

What has happened these past 12 months and where are we now?

• TrustedBio ASIC taped out in mid-year 2020. First samples were shipped to customers in August. There have been zero changes. This is a tremendous accomplishment particularly for such a complex mixed signal ASIC. This is a testament to the experience of our silicon design team, their rigorous world class design and development methodology, and the collaboration with our systems engineering and software departments.
• TrustedBio polymer substrate design is complete and in production. We always anticipate several iterations. Each version of substrate is literally analyzed in microscopic detail by our suppliers, our customers, and ourselves. Together we made small design changes to optimize performance, yield, and achieve all mechanical and electrical specifications.
• Software is wrapping up. Software is almost always the final gating item. Until you have real sensors it is very difficult to write and test software. However, we have successfully met every software milestone commitment to our customers. We incorporated every possible simulation tool to develop software before sensors were available. We used FPGAs as well as software models of TrustedBio silicon. The result included an accomplishment that was a first in my career. We were able to successfully download and execute software on raw silicon wafers using ATE test equipment within hours of getting our first wafers. This is even before the wafers were assembled and packaged. This saved us several weeks of development.

The features and capabilities of TrustedBio far exceed our competition. TrustedBio ASIC in 40nm is less than 10 square mm, which is less than ¼ of the size of our competition and has a sensing area 2.5 times larger. TrustedBio is the only sensor to have an integrated PMU that can harvest energy from the antenna. TrustedBio can provide power to the SE as well as provide optimized voltages to all the different analog and digital circuits. TrustedBio is the only sensor with a very fast, variable speed, low power MCU with plenty of memory. The MCU controls a high-performance scan engine, encrypts communications, and runs complex biometric and anti-spoof algorithms.

We started with a revolutionary goal and what many would say was a crazy aggressive schedule. Despite Covid and all the challenges of 2020 we are now able to deliver production quality sensors and biometric card systems. We are extremely pleased with the success of TrustedBio. While no development is ever perfect, this is among the best and most satisfying in my career. Today, every significant risk factor is behind us. We are testing production sensors and updating software in preparation for customer manufacturing builds and certifications.

Where do we go from here? TrustedBio is intended to revolutionize biometric cards by enabling costs in the range of $5 with all secure elements. We won our first TrustedBio design with just a set of PowerPoint slides. Now we have production quality sensors that allow us to develop fully working prototypes with each SE. Our goal is simple. We are expanding our customer engagements and working towards design wins with every major SE supplier and biometric card company for every global payment network.

When we introduce customers to the technology and performance of TrustedBio they instantly understand that TrustedBio is unlike any other sensor. TrustedBio has a cost advantage in every card design. It is less costly when paired with a BioSE and provides a much lower cost solution when paired with standard SEs, which will be the predominant SE for some time to come. TrustedBio is a disruptive sensor, dramatically cutting costs, simplifying card manufacturing, and providing outstanding biometric performance. We are confident that TrustedBio will be the sensor of choice for Gen 3 biometric cards.

One last note, our silicon design team is already moving onto our next project. The design document for TrustedBio II is well underway. We are developing radically new sensing technologies and broadening our capabilities to address card-not-present fraud. TrustedBio is just the beginning.