Fingerprint sensor and electronic device having the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017270333-A1
Application number	US-201715439111-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 22, 2017
Priority date	Mar 17, 2016
Publication date	Sep 21, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A fingerprint sensor includes a pixel array, an analog-to-digital converter, and a reference signal generator. The pixel array includes a plurality of unit pixels arranged in rows and columns, and each of the plurality of unit pixels generates an analog signal by detecting a fingerprint of a user. The analog-to-digital converter performs an analog-to-digital conversion operation on the analog signal to generate a digital signal. The analog-to-digital converter is configured to perform the analog-to-digital conversion based on a reference signal. The reference signal generator generates the reference signal such that the reference signal decreases at a first rate from a start voltage, and adjusts a magnitude of the start voltage based on the digital signal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A fingerprint sensor, comprising:
a pixel array including a plurality of unit pixels arranged in rows and columns, each of the plurality of unit pixels being configured to generate an analog signal by detecting a fingerprint of a user; an analog-to-digital converter configured to perform an analog-to-digital conversion operation on the analog signal to generate a digital signal, the analog-to-digital converter configured to perform the analog-to-digital conversion based on a reference signal; and a reference signal generator configured to generate the reference signal such that the reference signal decreases at a first rate from a start voltage, the reference signal generator being configured to adjust a magnitude of the start voltage based on the digital signal.

2 . The fingerprint sensor of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of unit pixels generates a first analog signal corresponding to a reset component during a reset period and generates a second analog signal corresponding to the fingerprint of the user during a detection period, and
the analog-to-digital converter generates the digital signal by performing a correlated double sampling (CDS) operation on the first analog signal and the second analog signal based on the reference signal.

3 . The fingerprint sensor of claim 2 , wherein the reference signal generator,
generates the reference signal such that the reference signal decreases at the first rate from a first start voltage during the reset period, and generates the reference signal such that the reference signal decreases at the first rate from a second start voltage during the detection period, the second start voltage being lower than the first start voltage.

4 . The fingerprint sensor of claim 3 , wherein the digital signal is a plurality of digital signals and the reference signal generator is configured to,
calculate an average value based on the digital signals received from the analog-to-digital converter, decrease a magnitude of the second start voltage when the average value is greater than a first reference value, and increase the magnitude of the second start voltage when the average value is smaller than the first reference value.

5 . The fingerprint sensor of claim 4 , wherein the reference signal generator is configured to,
calculate the average value by averaging values of selected digital signals of the digital signals, the selected digital signals corresponding to one row of the pixel array.

6 . The fingerprint sensor of claim 4 , wherein the reference signal generator is configured to,
calculate the average value by averaging values of selected digital signals of the digital signals, the selected digital signals corresponding to one frame of the pixel array.

7 . The fingerprint sensor of claim 4 , wherein the reference signal generator is configured to,
determine a first most frequent value and a second most frequent value, the first most frequent value is the most frequent value among the digital signals and the second most frequent value is the second most frequent value among the digital signals, and calculate the average value by averaging the first most frequent value and the second most frequent value.

8 . The fingerprint sensor of claim 3 , wherein the reference signal generator is configured to adjust a magnitude of the first rate based on the digital signal.

9 . The fingerprint sensor of claim 8 , wherein the digital signal is a plurality of digital signals and the reference signal generator is configured to,
determine a first most frequent value and a second most frequent value, the first most frequent value is the most frequent value among the digital signals and the second most frequent value is the second most frequent value among the digital signals, and adjust the magnitude of the first rate based on a difference between the first most frequent value and the second most frequent value.

10 . The fingerprint sensor of claim 9 , wherein the reference signal generator,
increases the magnitude of the first rate when the difference between the first most frequent value and the second most frequent value is greater than a second reference value, and decreases the magnitude of the first rate when the difference between the first most frequent value and the second most frequent value is smaller than the second reference value.

11 . The fingerprint sensor of claim 8 , wherein the reference signal generator includes:
a reference resistor coupled between a supply voltage source and a first node, the first node being a location at which the reference signal is output; and a current generation circuit coupled between the first node and a ground voltage source, the current generation circuit being configured to generate a reference current such that the reference current increases at a second rate from a first start current while a count enable signal is activated in the reset period, the current generation circuit being configured to generate the reference current based on the digital signal, and the current generation circuit further configured to generate the reference current such that the reference current increases at the second rate from a second start current while the count enable signal is activated in the detection period, the second start current being greater than the first start current.

12 . The fingerprint sensor of claim 11 , wherein the digital signal is a plurality of digital signals and the current generation circuit is configured to,
determine a first most frequent value and a second most frequent value, the first most frequent value is the most frequent value among the digital signals and the second most frequent value is the second most frequent value among the digital signals, calculate an average value by averaging the first most frequent value and the second most frequent value, increase a magnitude of the second start current when the average value is greater than a first reference value, and decrease the magnitude of the second start current when the average value is smaller than the first reference value.

13 . The fingerprint sensor of claim 11 , wherein the digital signal is a plurality of digital signals and the current generation circuit is configured to,
determine a first most frequent value and a second most frequent value, the first most frequent value is the most frequent value among the digital signals and the second most frequent value is the second most frequent value among the digital signals, increase a magnitude of the second rate when a difference between the first most frequent value and the second most frequent value is greater than a second reference value, and decrease the magnitude of the second rate when the difference between the first most frequent value and the second most frequent value is smaller than the second reference value.

14 . The fingerprint sensor of claim 8 , wherein the reference signal generator includes:
a variable resistor circuit coupled between a supply voltage source and a first node, the first node being a location at which the reference signal is output, the variable resistor circuit being configured to provide a reference resistance such that the reference resistance increases at a third rate from a first start resistance while a count enable signal is activated in the reset period, the variable resistor circuit being configured to provide the reference resistance based on the digital signal, and the variable resistor circuit being configured to provide the reference resistance such that the reference resistance increases at the third rate from

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Jeon Jin-Uk
• Kim Sun-Kwon
• Lee Seung-Hoon

Classifications

• G06K9/001

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06K9/0002 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06V40/1306 Primary

  non-optical, e.g. ultrasonic or capacitive sensing · CPC title

• G06V40/1376

  Matching features related to ridge properties or fingerprint texture · CPC title