The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 19, 2000
Filed:
May. 01, 1997
Armand P Neukermans, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Timothy G Slater, San Francisco, CA (US);
Philip Downing, Saratoga, CA (US);
Xros, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A beam (38) of electromagnetic radiation deflected by a moving mirror plate (56) of a micromachined scanner (54) produces a two dimensional ('2D') raster (132) on a scanned surface (28) of a block (34). The block (34) is transparent to electro-magnetic radiation of pre-established wavelengths. A radiation inlet-face (36) of the block (34) admits the beam (38) that then impinges on the scanned surface (28) to exit the block (34) through a radiation outlet-face (42). After exiting the block (34), the beam (38) impinges upon a radiation detector (142). Total internal reflection ('TIR') of the beam (38) from the scanned surface (28) at fingerprint valleys and frustration of TIR at fingerprint ridges causes the radiation detector (142) to produce a time-varying electrical signal that represents the fingerprint. The scanned surface (28) may be formed by a patch (302) of resilient material, that may be tinted to be transparent only at the pre-established wavelength of the electro-magnetic radiation.