SCHOTT’s Ultra-thin Glass Features in Fingerprint Sensors in New Smartphones

SCHOTT has helped new smartphone models, first being released in China, to advance fingerprint sensors using ultra-thin glass. SCHOTT’s D263 T eco ultra-thin glass’s unique properties enable more responsive and reliable fingerprint sensors, which help protect the end-user’s privacy. SCHOTT is the only company that offers chemically strengthened ultra-thin glass, which is four times harder than other ultra-thin glass and is well-suited for robust sensor configurations in electronic devices.

Fingerprint sensors have become a must-have feature in smartphones. According to a study conducted by Consumer Reports, 34% of American smartphone users do not use any type of security feature, such as a four-digit PIN code, to lock their devices. In combination with passwords and PIN numbers, fingerprint sensors provide a simple, convenient and intuitive layer of security that protects personal information, such as contacts, passwords and credit card or bank account log-ins.

The thinness of SCHOTT D 263 T eco glass, as well as its high dielectric constant and uniformity, allows the sensor to quickly recognize a fingerprint. The thinner the glass, the more sensitive the sensor’s cover can be. D263 T eco’s high dielectric constant makes it an attractive alternative to sapphire glass and other materials.

SCHOTT can supply this ultra-thin glass solution in thicknesses ranging from 210 µm down to 50 µm with a very tight thickness tolerance. Because SCHOTT D 263 T eco contains alkali ions, it can be reliably strengthened in an ion-exchange process, and this chemical strengthening makes the glass four times stronger than other thin glass.

“As mobile payment adoption grows, and more applications accept a fingerprint as a key to entry, the reliability and ease-of-use of fingerprint sensors will be a paramount consideration for mobile device manufacturers,” said Dr. Ruediger Sprengard, head of business development Ultra-Thin Glass at SCHOTT Advanced Optics. “But this ultra-thin glass can also be used in other biometric sensors, employed in situations where security is essential, like a laboratory. Better materials like ultra-thin glass will ensure these locks of the future work reliably and accurately.”