Fingerprint Cards launches sensor that can hide under glass

Embedding fingerprint scanners neatly into home buttons or dedicated frames is pretty convenient, but wouldn’t it be luxurious if we could tuck the little sensor away into the smartphone’s case itself? Well, Fingerprint Cards and TPK, a leading company specializing in cover glass and lamination technologies, have successfully developed a prototype that does just this, discretely mounting a FPC1268 fingerprint sensor under a typical glass cover.

The FPC1268 module will enable smartphone manufacturers to discretely integrate fingerprint sensors directly under a phone’s glass panel, such as in the non-active areas underneath the main display, or it could be used inside a home button that has a glass finish. Either way, this could certainly result in some sleek looking fingerprint scanner implementations and all-round better looking smartphones.

“Using FPC1268, smartphone manufacturers will be able to completely embed the fingerprint sensor beneath the cover glass of the smartphone, enabling new innovative industrial designs.” – Jörgen Lantto, President and CEO of FPC

The FPC1268 is based on capacitive recognition technology, which is used in modern high-end smartphone fingerprint scanners and is rather tough to trick. The FPC1268 design works with glass up to 300 µm thick, although the sensor can extend to glass up to 400 µm thick. The design is also compatible with hardened glass, which is useful for smartphones that want to offer some protection against drops. Along with the announcement, the company has released a demo video, which you can watch below.

Fingerprint Cards will be showing off a FPC1268 integrated with a TPK cover glass solution to guests at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The first commercial devices featuring the sensor are expected to hit the market in the second half of 2016.