Giga-hertz ultrasonic reflectometry for fingerprint imaging using epitaxial PbTiO3 transducers.

A fingerprint reader based on epitaxial PbTiO₃ (PTO) transducer array operating thickness extensional mode in GHz range was fabricated. The device consisted of nine square transducers with 0.1 mm per side arranged 1.3 mm apart in a 3 × 3 array. Minimum conversion loss of the fabricated transducer was 2.5 dB at 0.8 GHz, and electromechanical coupling coefficient k_t² was estimated to be 28.9%. In contrast to MHz range ultrasonic fingerprint readers such as those based on piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers using a piezoelectric transducer and ScAlN, a GHz range transducer enables imaging in higher spatial resolution. Furthermore, PTO transducers have a high dielectric constant and electromechanical coupling coefficient k_t². A high dielectric constant realizes 50 Ω impedance matching with small electrode area. The small acoustic source is expected to improve the spatial resolution of a fingerprint reader. We achieved the fingerprint imaging by evaluating the acoustic reflectance of the medium/transducer interface. Furthermore, piezostage that allows mechanical movement in the 100 nm order was introduced to image a 12 × 12 μm² area with total of 3600 data points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]