Patent Application
20170337410
The invention generally relates to an electrical apparatus, an electrical device and a sensing method, in particular, to a fingerprint sensing apparatus, an integrated sensor device and a fingerprint sensing method.
In the field of mobile device application, due to the demand of user experience is increasing, the design of the mobile device having input elements is more and more important. The input elements may be a touch panel, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a light sensor, a biometric sensor, and so forth. Especially, the mobile device combined with the biologic sensor has more and more applications. The biological sensor can be used to replace the password unlock or the mobile payment. In addition, the biological sensor can also be used to other applications, such as the image capture function, the motion detection, the click detection, the double-click detection, and so forth. That is to say, the biological sensor may have the ability to replace the pointing device, such as a mouse, a joystick and a trackball.
Moreover, the mobile device integrated with a force sensor is also the currently important application. The force sensor has various forms, such as a mechanical force sensor, a resistive force sensor, a capacitive force sensor, a piezoelectric force sensor, an optical force sensor and so forth. The most important is that the force sensor can be used to detect the physical force, so as to obtain the magnitude of the applied force. Hence, how to design a fingerprint sensing apparatus having above sensors to enhance the user experience is one of the most important topics in the pertinent field.
Accordingly, the invention is directed to a fingerprint sensing apparatus, an integrated sensor device, and a fingerprint sensing method, capable of providing a satisfactory user experience.
The invention provides a fingerprint sensing apparatus including an integrated sensor device and a fingerprint sensing circuit. The integrated sensor device includes at least two sensors. The integrated sensor device is configured to sense a fingerprint to obtain two different types of information related to the fingerprint. The fingerprint sensing circuit is electrically connected to the integrated sensor device. The fingerprint sensing circuit is configured to drive the integrated sensor device to sense the fingerprint. One of the two different types of information is determined according to the other of the two different types of information.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the at least two sensors comprise a biometric sensor and a force sensor, and the two different types of information comprise a biological feature and a force value of the fingerprint.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the biometric sensor senses the fingerprint to obtain the biological feature of the fingerprint by biometric sensing pixels thereof.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the force sensor senses the fingerprint to obtain the force value of the fingerprint, and the force sensor is selected from one of a capacitive sensor and a resistive sensor.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the biometric sensor and the force sensor are stacked with each other, and one of the biometric sensor and the force sensor is disposed on the other of the biometric sensor and the force sensor.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, if the force value satisfies a predetermined condition, it is determined whether the biological feature is matched with a reference feature.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, if the biological feature is identified, it is determined whether the force value satisfies a predetermined condition.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the fingerprint sensing circuit respectively drives the biometric sensor and the force sensor to sense the fingerprint in a manner of time division.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the fingerprint sensing circuit includes a transceiver circuit electrically connected to the biometric sensor and the force sensor. The transceiver circuit receives or transmits the biological feature and the force value during different periods.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the fingerprint sensing circuit further includes a control circuit electrically connected to the transceiver circuit. The control circuit controls the transceiver circuit to receive or transmit the biological feature and the force value during the different periods.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the fingerprint sensing circuit further includes an integrated sensing circuit electrically connected to the transceiver circuit. The integrated sensing circuit includes at least two sensing circuits configured to respectively process the two different types of information, and stores a processed result to a storage apparatus.
The invention provides a fingerprint sensing circuit. The fingerprint sensing circuit is configured to drive an integrated sensor device to sense a fingerprint. The fingerprint sensing circuit includes a transceiver circuit, a control circuit, and an integrated sensing circuit. The transceiver circuit is electrically connected to the integrated sensor device. The transceiver circuit is configured to receive or transmit two different types of information related to the fingerprint. The control circuit is electrically connected to the transceiver circuit. The control circuit is configured to control the transceiver circuit to receive or transmit the two different types of information during different periods. The integrated sensing circuit is electrically connected to the transceiver circuit. The integrated sensing circuit includes at least two sensing circuits configured to respectively process the two different types of information. The integrated sensor device includes at least two sensors configured to sense the fingerprint to obtain the two different types of information. One of the two different types of information is determined according to the other of the two different types of information.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the at least two sensors include a biometric sensor and a force sensor, and the two different types of information include a biological feature and a force value of the fingerprint.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the biometric sensor senses the fingerprint to obtain the biological feature of the fingerprint by biometric sensing pixels thereof.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the force sensor senses the fingerprint to obtain the force value of the fingerprint, and the force sensor is selected from one of a capacitive sensor and a resistive sensor.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the biometric sensor and the force sensor are stacked with each other, and one of the biometric sensor and the force sensor is disposed on the other of the biometric sensor and the force sensor.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, if the force value satisfies a predetermined condition, it is determined whether the biological feature is matched with a reference feature.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, if the biological feature is identified, it is determined whether the force value satisfies a predetermined condition.
The invention provides a fingerprint sensing method. The fingerprint sensing method is adapted to drive an integrate sensor device to sense a fingerprint. The fingerprint sensing method includes: driving the integrated sensor device to sense the fingerprint to obtain two different types of information related to the fingerprint; and determining one of the two different types of information according to the other of the two different types of information. The integrated sensor includes at least two sensors.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the at least two sensors includes a biometric sensor and a force sensor, and the two different types of information include a biological feature and a force value of the fingerprint.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the step of determining one of the two different types of information according to the other of the two different types of information includes: if the force value satisfies a predetermined condition, determining whether the biological feature is matched with a reference feature.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the step of determining one of the two different types of information according to the other of the two different types of information includes: if the biological feature is identified, determining whether the force value satisfies a predetermined condition.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the step of driving the integrated sensor device to sense the fingerprint to obtain the two different types of information related to the fingerprint includes: respectively driving the biometric sensor and the force sensor to sense the fingerprint in a manner of time division.
According to the above descriptions, in the exemplary embodiments of the invention, for fingerprint sensing, at least two sensors are integrated to obtain two different types of information related to the fingerprint. The fingerprint is identified according to the two different types of information to provide a satisfactory user experience.
In order to make the aforementioned and other features and advantages of the invention comprehensible, several exemplary embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.
In the present embodiment, the fingerprint sensing circuit 200 includes a transceiver circuit 210, a control circuit 220, and an integrated sensing circuit 230. The transceiver circuit 210 is electrically connected to the integrated sensor device 100. The control circuit 220 is electrically connected to the transceiver circuit 210, and may control the transceiver circuit 210 to receive or transmit the two different types of information related to the fingerprint during different periods. Therefore, the fingerprint sensing apparatus 10 may utilize a single fingerprint sensing circuit to drive the integrated sensor device 100. The integrated sensing circuit 230 is electrically connected to the transceiver circuit 210 to process the two different types of information related to the fingerprint.
It should be noticed that, in the present embodiment, the fingerprint sensing apparatus 10 may utilize the control circuit 220 to determine one of the two different types of information according to the other of the two different types of information. In the present embodiment, the control circuit 220 may be a scan logic circuit, a central processing unit (CPU), a chipset, a microprocessor, a controller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), a control circuit, or a combination of aforementioned devices, and the invention is also not limited thereto.
In one embodiment, the fingerprint sensing apparatus 10 may further include another processor circuit (not shown), or electrically connect to an external processor circuit. The fingerprint sensing apparatus 10 may determine one of the two different types of information according to the other of the two different types of information by the foregoing processor circuit. The arrangement of the foregoing processor circuit is not limited in the invention. In the present embodiment, the foregoing processor circuit may be a central processing unit (CPU), a chipset, a microprocessor, a controller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), a control circuit, or a combination of aforementioned devices, and the invention is also not limited thereto.
For example, the biometric sensor 110 may sense the feature of the fingerprint, and the force sensor may sense a plurality of force values of the fingerprint in a time period. In the present embodiment, the force values may respectively correspond to different features of the fingerprint. That is to say, when the user's finger presses on the biometric sensor 110, the biometric sensor 110 may determine the sensing information including the feature of the fingerprint according to the corresponding force value.
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For example, in order to enhance the accuracy of the fingerprint identification, when the force value satisfies a predetermined condition, it may be determined whether the biological feature is matched with a reference feature, e.g. a biological feature of a user pre-registered in the integrated sensor device 100. In this case, the predetermined condition may be a threshold value, and the biological feature may be a fingerprint image. To be specific, since the different degrees that the user presses the integrated sensor device 100 may affect the judgement accuracy of the fingerprint image, the fingerprint sensing circuit 200 may determine to obtain a complete finger image when the force value is larger than the threshold value. In other words, the fingerprint sensing circuit 200 may obtain a complete information of the fingerprint according to the judgement condition of the sensing force value. Therefore, the incomplete information of the fingerprint is avoided when the user's finger does not completely press the integrated sensor device 100, or the force value is smaller than the threshold value.
For another example, when the biological feature is identified, it may be determined whether the force value satisfies a predetermined condition, and a feedback or a response to the biological sensing result may be further generated. In this case, the predetermined condition may be a threshold value, and the biological feature may be a user's fingerprint. To be specific, the fingerprint sensing circuit 200 may further include more functions for generating a feedback or a response to the biological sensing result, i.e. the fingerprint. The electrical apparatus having the fingerprint sensing apparatus 10 may provide some interactive operations according to the sensing result, so that the response may be a corresponding function or instruction to interact with the user, but the invention is not limited thereto.
It should be noticed that, in the present embodiment, the fingerprint sensing apparatus 10 not only determines one of the two different types of information according to the other of the two different types of information, but also further generates a feedback or a response according to the force sensing result and the biological sensing result. In addition, in one embodiment, the fingerprint sensing circuit 200 may sense the fingerprint to obtain one type of information related to the fingerprint, and the type of information may be selected from one of the biological feature and the force value.
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In the present embodiment, the transceiver circuit 910 includes a transmitter 911 and a receiver 913. The transmitter 911 and the receiver 913 are respectively configured to receive and transmit the two type of information related to the fingerprint. The transmitter 911 and the receiver 913 are electrically connected to the control circuit 920. The control circuit 920 controls the transmitter 911 and the receiver 913 to receive and transmit the biological feature and the force value during the different periods respectively. In the present embodiment, the control circuit 920 may control the transmitter 911 to respectively provide driving signals to the biometric sensor 810 and the force sensor 820. The driving signals may be a square wave, sine wave, triangle wave and so on. Therefore, the fingerprint sensing circuit 900 may further include a charge pump 915 to provide a voltage level for the transmitter 911, so that the transmitter 911 outputs the driving signals such as square wave, sine wave, triangle wave and so on to the integrated sensor device 800.
In the present embodiment, when the transmitter 911 provides the driving signals to the biometric sensor 810 and the force sensor 820 to sense the fingerprint, the receiver 913 may receive the information including the force value and the biometrical feature of the fingerprint. It should be noticed that the receiver 913 is simultaneously electrically connected to the biometric sensor 810 and the force sensor 820, so as to receive the information from the biometric sensor 810 and the force sensor 820 in a manner of time division.
In the present embodiment, the integrated sensing circuit 930 includes a force sensing circuit 931 and a biologic sensing circuit 933. The force sensing circuit 931 and the biologic sensing circuit 933 are respectively configured to process the signals corresponding to the force value and the biometrical feature of the fingerprint. The storage apparatus 935 is electrically connected to the force sensing circuit 931 and the biologic sensing circuit 933 to store the processed results. The storage apparatus 935 is further electrically connected to the control circuit 920 to provide the processed results to the control circuit 920.
To be specific, the force sensing circuit 931 and the biologic sensing circuit 933 may process the signals from the receiver 913. The signals may include the information corresponding to the force value and the biometrical feature of the fingerprint. Since the receiver 913 is electrically connected to the biometric sensor 810 and the force sensor 820, the receiver 913 may receive the two different types of info nation related to the fingerprint in the manner of time division. The force sensing circuit 931 and the biologic sensing circuit 933 respectively process the corresponding signals according to the type of information. The two different types of information may include the force value and the biometric feature respectively. The force sensing circuit 931 and the biologic sensing circuit 933 may respectively output a processed result. The processed result may respectively include the force value and the biometric feature of the fingerprint. Furthermore, the storage apparatus 935 is configured to store the processed result, and provide the stored information to the control circuit 920. In another embodiment, the fingerprint sensing apparatus 60 may further include a processor circuit (not shown), or be electrically connected to an external processor circuit. The storage apparatus 935 may also electrically connect to the foregoing processor circuit, and provide the stored information to the foregoing processor circuit. The foregoing processor circuit may generate a feedback or a response according to the stored information. It should be noticed that, the fingerprint sensing apparatus 80 may utilize the control circuit 920 or the foregoing processor circuit to determine one of the two different types of information according to the other of the two different types of information.
In addition, in the present embodiment, the fingerprint sensing apparatus 80 may determine one of the biometrical feature and the force value according to the other of the biometrical feature and the force value, and even generate a feedback to the user according to the sensing result of the biologic sensor and the force sensor. The related feature and the operation of fingerprint sensing apparatus 80 described in the present embodiment of the invention is sufficiently taught, suggested, and embodied in the embodiments illustrated in
In summary, in the exemplary embodiments of the invention, the fingerprint sensing apparatus may utilize the fingerprint sensing circuit to drive the integrated sensor device having two different types of sensors, and obtain the two different types of information related to the fingerprint. The fingerprint sensing apparatus may determine one of the two different types of information according to the other of the two different types of information. That is to say, the fingerprint sensing circuit respectively processes the content of the two different types of information to obtain the parameter and the feature of the fingerprint, so that the fingerprint sensing apparatus may further generate a feedback or a response to the sensing results of the biologic sensor and the force sensor. Accordingly, the fingerprint sensing apparatus of the exemplary embodiments of the invention may provide a satisfactory user experience.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
