On July 29 Patently Apple posted a report titled "Samsung's Ultrasonic based Fingerprint Scanner for under a Smartphone Display was confirmed in a Patent this week." Since that time Huawei, Vivo, OnePlus, Oppo and others have introduced phones with in-display fingerprint scanners. It's also been rumored that the Galaxy S10 coming in late February will offer this feature. On Tuesday the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a granted patent for an alternative under-the-display fingerprint scanning patent.
Samsung notes that their granted patent relates to an on-screen fingerprint sensor capable of sensing a fingerprint on a display screen and an electronic device including the on-screen fingerprint sensor.
They further noted that in an exemplary embodiment, there is provided an electrical device including: a display configured to display an image; a first transparent cover arranged on the display; a second transparent cover comprising a touch surface operable to be touched by a finger of a user; and a sensor disposed between the first transparent cover and the second transparent cover, the sensor being configured to receive a fingerprint of the finger.
The second transparent cover may include reinforced glass, sapphire, or polymer. The second transparent cover may include a material having a pencil hardness of 9H or higher.
The sensor may further include an insulating layer arranged between the plurality of first electrodes and the plurality of second electrodes; and a support layer provided to support the plurality of first electrodes, the insulating layer, and the plurality of second electrodes. The support layer may be adhered to a surface of the first transparent cover that faces the sensor or adhered to an opposite surface to the touch surface of the second transparent cover.
Each of the plurality of first electrodes and the plurality of second electrodes may have a shape in which there is a plurality of diamond patterns that are connected as noted in FIG. 1
The diamond pattern may include a transparent conductive material. A bridge pattern including a metallic material may be provided to connect adjacent diamond patterns among the plurality of diamond patterns.
According to an aspect of another exemplary embodiment, there is provided an electrical device including a display configured to display an image, a transparent cover arranged on the display, and a sensor buried in the transparent cover to receive a fingerprint of a finger of a user in response to a surface of the transparent cover being touched by the finger.
Samsung's patent FIG. 6 below is a flowchart illustrating an operation of performing fingerprint sensing and/or touch sensing by the electronic device.
Samsung's recently granted patent was filed in the US on December 12, 2016.
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