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Japan Display Inc develops a new transparent fingerprint sensor for smartphones

Japan Display Inc (JDI), the company which is known for its displays has now announced its first fingerprint scanner. Interestingly, the fingerprint sensor based on the company’s capacitive touch technology is transparent and could be used in future smartphones.

JDI will make glass-based capacitive fingerprint sensors that will be transparent and will also be able to replace silicon-based fingerprint sensors that are currently used in smartphones.

We have seen Vivo has officially unveiled the first smartphone with an in-display fingerprint scanner. Now, JDI using its own technology is doing the same but in a different way. The company will integrate the sensor into the display itself.

How does it work?

The JDI uses its Pixel Eyes tech that builds the capacitive touch sensor into the LCD panel, similar to what we see on biometric machines. The company has enhanced this tech to detect the changes in capacitance caused by the recesses and ridges of fingerprints and they have improved the sensitivity to the point where it can detect the ridges of your fingerprints.


Glass-based Capacitive Fingerprint Sensor (Source: JDI)

The traditional fingerprint scanners are made out of silicon and thus they are not transparent. However, this technological development made it possible to form JDI’s new capacitive fingerprint sensor on a highly transparent glass layer. JDI’s sensor measures 8mm by 8mm which makes it easy to integrate into the LCDs.

So, there’s no need to put it inside the screen as used in the Vivo X20. Basically, it could directly be integrated into the display of your smartphone. As of now, the new fingerprint scanner is supposed to be used for smartphones only, however, JDI will also use the technology for smart vehicles, banking, and other IoT applications.

JDI has also announced to expand the transparent fingerprint sensor line-up to include larger or smaller sizes as well apart from this 8mm x 8mm sensor. JDI’s sensor is expected to start shipping to OEMs sometime in March 2019.

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Satyendra Pal Singh

Satyendra explores the latest happenings in the tech world and writes stories about those. He likes to play around with the latest gadgets and shares his views through articles. In his free time, you can find him watching movies/TV shows and/or reading books.

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