Samsung patent brings full-screen fingerprint sensor to foldable phones

In contrast to the trend of placing fingerprint sensors at the bottom of the screen, Samsung’s foldable smartphones have retained the side button biometric scanner.

However, a recent Samsung patent suggests a departure from this design, indicating the upcoming series of foldable and rollable smartphones may feature a full-screen fingerprint sensor.

The patent, brought to attention by xleaks7 (David Kowalski) and The NerdStash, describes the integration of the fingerprint sensor beneath the display panel can leverage the light emitted by the organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).

When a finger touches the cover window, the reflected light passes through the holes in the light-blocking layer to the fingerprint sensor layer, enabling the recognition process without needing an external light source.

The display panel will have the base substrate with the first base as the initial layer of the substrate, a second base, which is a subsequent layer on top of the first base, and there is a light blocking layer.

The thin-film transistor layer is located on the base substrate and is responsible for controlling the pixels in the display. There is a light blocking layer positioned between the first and second bases, which contains holes allowing light reflected from a finger touching the cover window to pass through.

Samsung foldable smartphones are designed with an OLED screen that folds and includes a small secondary screen on the side. The benefits of using a light-emitting element layer are fast response times, high brightness, wide viewing angles, and low power consumption.

The NerdStash blogpost anticipates the debut of a full-screen fingerprint sensor in the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7, which is rumored to release along with the first rollable smartphone, in 2025.

Article Topics

biometric sensors  |  biometrics  |  fingerprint sensors  |  patents  |  Samsung  |  smartphones  |  under display