Surface acoustic impediography: a new technology for fingerprint mapping and biometric identification: a numerical study

A new type of fingerprint sensor is presented. The sensor maps the acoustic impedance of the fingerprint pattern by estimating the electrical impedance of its sensor elements. The sensor substrate, made of 1-3 piezo-ceramic, which is fabricated inexpensively at large scales, can provide a resolution up to 50 μm over an area of 20 x 25 mm2. Using FE modeling the paper presents the numerical validation of the basic principle. It evaluates an optimized pillar aspect ratio, estimates spatial resolution and the point spread function for a 100 μm and 50 μm pitch model. In addition, first fingerprints obtained with the prototype sensor are presented.