A sweeping mode integrated tactile fingerprint sensor

Abstract

We report recent advances in the development of a tactile fingerprint sensor made by a CMOS compatible frontside bulk micromachining technology. This device enables the measurement of a fingerprint by the way of a mechanical scanning principle of the finger's roughness. While this sensing principle has shown good results on a first reduced length prototype, we present here the design, fabrication and test of a new sensor. This sensor contain 256 pressure sensitive microbeams for a total length of 1.28 cm and is integrated with analog and mixed signal electronics.