Fingerprint Cards awarded biometric card manufacturing patent in US

Fingerprint Cards has been granted a biometrics patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the design and manufacturing of a capacitive fingerprint sensing module for integration in smart cards.

The patent document for the proposed ‘Fingerprint sensing module and method for manufacturing the fingerprint sensing module’ describes the use of a biometric sensing module with electric wire-bonds connecting pads to the external circuitry (to the module) of the device.

This technology can help deliver fingerprint biometrics at lower costs suitable to smart cards, FPC says. This is because it supports the “mill and drill” technique currently used in card production, with a conductive inlay laminated at the center of the card.

“In presently available smart cards, fingerprint sensor modules can be soldered on an inlay and the card is in turn laminated with the inlay as a center layer and with a cavity in the card upper layer leaving the fingerprint sensor module exposed upon card lamination,” the inventors write.

“However, a gap between the fingerprint sensor module and the card body is often visible, creating reliability and cosmetic problems. Moreover, the described process is typically only used for limited series and not suitable for mass production.”

“Accordingly there is a need for an improved method for providing a smartcard comprising a fingerprint sensor module, and for a fingerprint sensor module for integration in a smart card,” the filing explains.

FPC is involved in biometric payment cards initiatives with Thales among other partners, and the company recently received an order for hundreds of thousands of units of its T-Shape module for biometric cards.

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