NEXT Biometrics has started shipping its NB-2034-S2 fingerprint sensor module for notebooks, the company has announced. The solution is also aimed at tablet and access control applications.

The NB-2034-S2 is the first module in NEXT Biometrics’ line of second generation ASIC solutions, and is based on the NB-A520 semiconductor controller, which features an embedded microcontroller. Because the essential elements are housed in a single ASIC chip, NEXT says, the solution is especially cost-efficient, and allows for more freedom in OEM designs.

In a statement announcing the shipments, NEXT Biometrics CEO Ritu Favre declined to name the client that placed the order, calling it only a “Tier 1 notebook customer.”

Favre added that the business relationship “will impact our margins significantly” starting in Q1 of 2018. “These latest advances to our product line will contribute to pivot NEXT into a company with profitable revenue in all customer projects,” she said. News of the shipments comes after a Q2 update at the end of summer in which Favre highlighted NEXT Biometrics’ capability to mass produce flexible and rigid fingerprint sensors as one of the keys to its path forward.

The news also arrives on the heels of NEXT Biometrics’ win of the 2017 European Enabling Technology Leadership Award in Frost & Sullivan’s Annual Best Practices Awards, suggesting that the growth consultancy firm shares in NEXT Biometrics’ optimism about its future.