Zwipe Biometric Payment Card Features T-Shape Sensor

The latest version of Zwipe‘s biometric payment card features Fingerprint Cards’ T-Shape sensor, the company has announced.

The biometric module was first launched by Fingerprints in September of 2017, with the company announcing at the time that it was specifically designed for smart card applications. It was quickly embraced by IDEMIA for that company’s biometric payment card solution, with additional partners following suit in the ensuing years.

For its part, Zwipe is itself a longtime partner of Fingerprint Cards, having announced shortly after the T-Shape launch in the autumn of 2017 that it had shipped biometric smart cards featuring Fingerprints sensors. Now, in a statement on its website, Zwipe says it has opted for the T-Shape module “based on the sensor’s performance and scalability in mass volume production.”

Zwipe’s announcement also highlights the company’s first patent concerning its “post-placement” manufacturing process for the biometric payment card, which it says “is the most efficient means of mass producing biometrics smart cards.” The patent has been granted by patent authorities in the European Union, the US, Australia, China, and South Korea, though it has been challenged by multiple groups in filings with the European Patent Office. Nevertheless, the EPO patent will be upheld during the appeal process, “which is expected to take a minimum of two years if not longer to complete and finalize,” Zwipe explained.