Qualcomm Incorporated

Jong Soo Kim

Suryaprakash Ganti

David William Burns

Lennart Karl Mathe

Sandeep Louis D'Souza

Meir Agassy

Masoud Roham

Nathan Felix Altman

Ashish Hinger

Sherman Sebastian Antao

Vadim Winebrand

Bo-Ren Wang

Paul Penchin Pan

Yizhaq Abudi

Micah Timothy Lawrence

Seong Heon Jeong

Systems, methods and apparatus for configuring a fingerprint sensor to operate in a capacitive sensing mode and an ultrasonic sensing mode are disclosed. A fingerprint sensor may be configured to operate in a capacitive sensing mode by driving a sensing electrode using a controller. In some implementations, an object positioned on or near the sensing electrode may be detected using the fingerprint sensor in the capacitive sensing mode, and the controller can drive electrodes of the fingerprint sensor differently to configure the fingerprint sensor to operate in an ultrasonic sensing mode. In some implementations, an applications processor may be instructed to authenticate a fingerprint of the object from image data obtained when the fingerprint sensor is operating in the ultrasonic sensing mode. In some implementations, a display of a mobile device containing the fingerprint sensor may be unlocked, or the mobile device may be woken up when the fingerprint is authenticated.

Hybrid capacitive and ultrasonic sensing

Disclosed are methods, devices, apparatuses, and systems for ultrasonic fingerprint sensing with an acoustic shielding structure. One or more layers in an ultrasonic fingerprint sensing system may reflect back ultrasonic waves due to acoustic impedance mismatch that can distort a fingerprint image. An acoustic shielding structure may be configured to absorb, store, trap, or otherwise attenuate ultrasonic waves. The acoustic shielding structure may be positioned underlying an ultrasonic sensor layer. In some implementations, the acoustic shielding structure may include a plurality of periodically spaced apart geometric features or holes in a medium.

Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor with acoustic shielding

Growing community of inventors

San Diego, CA, United States of America

Jong Soo Kim