Lu Weibing, CEO of Xiaomi, announced that Redmi engineers have managed to embed fingerprint scanner under LCD display. Xiaomi CEO also confirmed that new technology is already in mass production, and we will see it in Redmi’s new smartphones soon.
How Does Fingerprint Scanner Work?
The principle of work of fingerprint scanner under the display is to first scan a fingerprint and save it in the memory of smartphone.
Each time you touch the fingerprint scanner again, your smartphone checks if the new fingerprint matches the original one that was registered earlier, and therefore grants or denies access.
What Was The Problem?
However, since the fingerprint sensor is under the screen, the smartphone must use a channel to transmit optical or ultrasonic signals. This was not possible on LCD displays, so previously the fingerprint scanner under the screen was only used on OLED screens. Engineers were unable to embed a fingerprint sensor in LCD displays due to the backlighting module.
Nowadays all smartphones with LCD screens have fingerprint scanners on the back or side panels, for example, Redmi K30.
For a long time Xiaomi together with its sub-brand Redmi worked on improving the fingerprint sensor to use under LCD displays.
Recently, a Chinese manufacturer has boasted of its first results.
In the video below you can see how the fingerprint scanner works on Redmi Note 8 smartphone. I want to note that the smartphone has LCD display.
Chinese engineers from Redmi and Xiaomi used high-bandwidth infrared film, which significantly improves the transmission of infrared light. An infrared transmitter at the bottom of the screen emits infrared light. After reflecting a fingerprint, it penetrates the screen and lights up on the fingerprint sensor to complete the fingerprint check.
In this way, Xiaomi was able to integrate the fingerprint scanner into LCD display.
What Does All This Mean?
First, it means that soon we can see smartphones with fingerprint scanner under the screen in the price category up to $100. It’s impressive, isn’t it?
It used to be thought that only flagship smartphones, and some mid-range phones, could have a fingerprint sensor under the screen. Very soon even ultra-budget smartphones will have that feature.
Xiaomi and Redmi have already confirmed that we will see ultra-budget smartphones with fingerprint scanner under the screen in the nearest future. We are waiting!
