Apple working on display that will be able to perform the functions of the fingerprint sensor. This is evidenced by the patent application, filed by the company from the California Bureau for registration of patents and trademarks of the United States. The document describes a screen with a built-in fingerprint scanner.
Application No. 9342674 was filed back in may 2015 and is called “User interface for controlling access to the electronic device. The main display is the silicon substrate on which is formed an array of transistors with one or several layers of metallization and interlayer connections. The display also includes color filters, touch sensor and other components and circuits.
All these components will form image on the display, but also will support touch input with optical guidance and input fingerprint. Apple describes three technologies for the integration, noting that one of them involves the use of ultrasound technology that will allow you to integrate dactyloscopy under the display and to improve the accuracy and speed in comparison with capacitive sensors like Touch ID.
The first samples of such displays can recognize fingerprints only in a certain area of the screen, but in the future Apple does not exclude the fact that active area will be the whole panel.
Last week, influential blogger John Gruber said that 2017 Apple is going to radically revise the design of the smartphone. The new generation of “Apple” devices will be one big display panel with no padding around the edges and holes for camera and speaker. While Touch ID will be embedded directly in the display itself.
Gruber is not the first who tells about a large-scale redesign of the iPhone range next year. In April, a reputable KGI analyst Ming Chi Kuo said that in Cupertino have decided to revise the design of the smartphone, completely changing the form factor. According to his information, waiting for users “an entirely new form factor with thinner frame around the screen and more comfortable grip”.
