At the Mobile World Congress, Qualcomm teased a new fingerprint scan technology called Sense ID. Ultrasound is used to recognize your fingerprint ridges in 3D.

Unlike Apple's TouchID, Qualcomm claims that the technology can verify your fingerprint whether it is wet or dry, and through aluminum, stainless steel, sapphire, plastic and glass, which means it should work well with any phone casing.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon Sense ID 3D fingerprint technology has been designed to "enhance authentication capabilities, usability and integration over legacy capacitive touch-based fingerprint technologies," the company says.

The technology used in the new chip is not new. It originates in professional biometric security applications. It reportedly scans fingerprints in superior detail than TouchID because it uses 3D rather than the 2D surface image produced by capacitive sensors.

According to Qualcomm, the solution "incorporates a Qualcomm biometric integrated circuit (QBIC), custom sensor technology and algorithms managed by the company's hardware-based SecureMSM technology." It uses sound waves to "directly penetrate the outer layers of skin, detecting three-dimensional details and unique fingerprint characteristics including fingerprint ridges and sweat pores."

Sense ID will be integrated into Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 and 425 chips. It will also be released as a standalone technology.

"We are going to be in production during the second half of this year. We're certainly very bullish on [biometric authentication]. We believe it's going to be a staple of smartphones going forward, without a doubt," product manager Max Hamel told NFC World.