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SCHOTT D263® T eco ultra-thin glass makes smartphone’s fingerprint sensors reliable

SCHOTT D263® T eco ultra-thin glass features in fingerprint sensors of smartphones. These sensors help to protect the end-consumer’s privacy while maintaining a high level of convenience for the users.Photo by SCHOTT AG

SCHOTT D263® T eco ultra-thin glass features in fingerprint sensors of smartphones. These sensors help to protect the end-consumer’s privacy while maintaining a high level of convenience for the users.
Photo by SCHOTT AG

First flagship smartphone models on the market now use SCHOTT D263® T eco ultra-thin glass in their fingerprint sensors. These sensors help to protect the end-consumer’s privacy while maintaining a high level of convenience for the users. The unique material properties of D263® T eco enable very high recognition reliability of the sensors. Germany-based specialty glass expert SCHOTT is the only company in the world to offer ultra-thin glass which can be chemically strengthened, making it well-suited for robust sensor configurations in electronic devices. SCHOTT presented its innovative ultra-thin glass applications at C-Touch in Shenzhen (China) .

First Chinese smartphone manufacturers have already adopted SCHOTT’s D263® T eco ultra-thin glass as the cover material of the fingerprint sensor in their newest flagship models. SCHOTT D263® T eco ultra-thin glass is currently being evaluated at many fabless sensor players, glass processors, module assemblers and smartphones OEMs, both inside and outside of China. “We are providing a glass solution that delivers the performance the industry demands”, says Dr. Jack Ju, Global Product Manager Thin Glass & Wafers at SCHOTT Advanced Optics in China.

The product characteristics of D263® T eco offer advantages over other material options such as a high dielectric constant which makes it an attractive alternative to sapphire. In addition, SCHOTT is able to supply D263® T eco ultra-thin glass for mass production in thicknesses ranging from 50 μm to 210 μm with a very tight thickness tolerance. All this means that SCHOTT’s ultra-thin glass enables a very attractive cost-performance packaging solution, and helps to reach reliable and high level performance without cost increase for the electronic devices.

Fingerprint sensors are becoming a must-have feature in innovative smartphones with a direct user benefit. According to a recent study conducted by CNBC, more than 30% of the American smartphone consumers currently do not use any type of security feature such as PIN codes to lock the screen of their devices. Thus, they do not protect their personal information such as contacts, passwords, maybe even credit card or bank account numbers.

“A fingerprint sensor is a great solution to secure this information: it is a very convenient, easy-to-use method to protect user privacy”, says Dr. Ruediger Sprengard, Head of Business Development Ultra-Thin Glass at SCHOTT Advanced Optics. “We expect many more applications to arise from this opportunity, such as the use of fingerprint sensors to enable a detection system for online/mobile payment systems and access control.”

What is more, SCHOTT is currently also the only company in the world to offer chemically strengthenable ultra-thin glass. As SCHOTT D 263® T eco glass contains alkali ions, it can be reliably strengthened in an ion-exchange process, offering a 4 times greater strength than non-strengthened glass. This makes it possible to use very strong ultra-thin glass in sensor environments that require a particularly robust material and enables easier handling and processing of the ultra-thin glass.

For more information, please visit http://www.schott.com.