Japan Display is going to make fingerprint scanners with technology from touchscreens

Japan Display Inc. is working on a fingerprint scanner that uses the same technology as capacitive touchscreens. In fact, it is a small touchscreen with a very high accuracy. The scanner is transparent, but does not seem suitable for integration into screens.

Japan Display says that the technology for the fingerprint scanner is based on the Pixel Eyes technology, which is the name of the LCDs that the consortium makes with a built-in touch layer. According to JDI, the technology is now so advanced that the changes in capacity can be used for scanning a fingerprint.

The sensor that JDI makes on a transparent glass substrate has dimensions of 8x8mm, but the consortium also plans to make scanners with other dimensions. In its message, JDI says that the transparent fingerprint scanner is suitable for smartphones and laptops and that it can be processed in glass due to the use of materials.

Despite the fact that the scanner is transparent and made of glass, it is not a fingerprint scanner that can be incorporated into the screen. However, it must be possible to conceal the scanner invisibly in, for example, a glass housing of a smartphone or glass touchpad of a laptop. In the future, JDI also thinks it will be able to make the fingerprint scanners flexible.

By making fingerprint scanners, Japan Display will enter markets other than the screen industry. The consortium sees growth opportunities in the sensor industry, as more and more objects are secured with biometric authentication. The consortium aims to deliver the fingerprint scanners in fiscal 2018, which ends in March 2019.

Other manufacturers are working on fingerprint scanners that can be placed under the screen. For now, that only works behind OLED screens. Synaptics demonstrated its behind-the-screen scanner at CES in a Vivo smartphone. Qualcomm announced last year a scanner that works with ultrasound, for placement behind OLED screens.

Fingerprint scanners that work under glass, but cannot be integrated into a screen, have been around for some time. LG, among others, makes such a scanner.

Fingerprint scanner from Japan Display Inc.