TOKYO — In search of a new market beyond smartphones, Japan Display Inc. (JDI) unveiled a transparent glass-based capacitive fingerprint sensor.

For JDI, a Sony-Toshiba-Hitachi collaboration that has been mired in the red, sensors represent a whole new market. Although its TFT-based fingerprint sensors have certain advantages over silicon-based solutions, JDI might be arriving too late with too little, observed industry analysts.

Katsuhisa Yuda, executive officer and president of JDI's Display Solutions Company, explained during a media briefing here that the new sensors were developed as an extension of the company’s LCD module, known as in-cell Pixel Eyes.

With Pixel Eyes, JDI had already integrated a basic touch function into the glass substrate of the TFT display. Pixel Eyes eliminates the need to add an external touch-panel module.

But with the new technology,“We have gone a step further,” explained Yuda. The glass substrate can now not only identify where a finger touches, but also "read" the changes in capacitance caused by the recesses and ridges of an individual fingerprints.

The end result is a capacitive fingerprint sensor on a pane of glass. JDI is hopeful that the high transparency of the glass substrate will open the door to a broad range of new applications not possible on widely available silicon-based fingerprint sensors. The goal is to go beyond smartphone displays to credit cards, door locks and elsewhere.

“We can combine it with a backlight,
or use it on a flexible surface.”

There are two approaches to TFT-based circuitry for fingerprint solutions. The first replaces the silicon but still offers a stand-alone fingerprint module. The other integrates sensor circuitry into the display’s TFT backplane for an in-display solution. What JDI is offering here is the former. The company provides a sensor module with an effective sensor measuring 8.0mm x 8.0mm. With 508 dpi pixel density, it offers 256 gradation and 160 x 160 resolution.