One of Apple's Technical Touch ID Patents comes to Light
On Jan 8, 2015, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals certain aspects of the technology behind fingerprint sensors that measure fingerprint patterning using electric field sensing. Apple notes that when the voltages on the finger are too high, as when using Touch ID, certain persons with very sensitive fingers may feel that voltage in form of a slight tingling. Apple's invention shows Apple's work on this problem that likely took place prior to Touch ID coming to market.
Apple's Patent Abstract: A finger biometric sensing device may include an array of finger biometric sensing pixel electrodes and amplifiers coupled together in series and to be selectively coupled to respective ones of the array of finger biometric sensing pixels. The finger biometric sensing device may further include at least one coupling capacitor between an output of a given amplifier and a corresponding input of a next amplifier of the plurality thereof, and reset circuitry capable of selectively resetting the input of the next amplifier.
Apple's patent FIG. 1 is a plan view of an iPhone with Touch ID in the home button and FIG. 2 is a basic schematic block diagram of the technology behind it all.
For more on the invention's detailing, see Apple's patent application 20150009186.
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