A Very Smart Chip
Atmel Expands Its FingerChip Sensor Portfolio to Meet Requirements of New Mobile Hand-Held Devices
Tuesday February 10, 8:02 am ET
Atmel Bridges the Gap to Next-Generation Phones and PDAs
GRENOBLE, France, Feb. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Atmel® Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML - News) announced today the introduction of the AT77C104B FingerChip(TM) fingerprint sensor optimized for mobile hand-held devices such as cell phones, smart phones or Personal Digital Assistants. The AT77C104B is the perfect choice for hand-held device makers wishing to increase the added value of their product, while minimizing the cost and integration efforts of a biometric solution. Access protection, password replacement, data encryption, profiling and theft prevention will easily become added-value features on next-generation devices with the integration of Atmel's FingerChip.
The sensor integrates new 8-way navigation and click functions for menu scrolling and item selection. This eliminates the need for space consuming, sometimes troublesome mechanical navigation modules. Once the FingerChip is integrated into a device, only a 1.6 mm by 9.5 mm sensor area remains visible, making it the smallest visible sensor area on the market today. The AT77C104B is an SPI output fingerprint sweep sensor providing a high-quality 500 dpi fingerprint image. It utilizes a unique patented method for imaging the entire finger by "sweeping" it across the sensor. Successive images are captured and specific software is then used to reconstruct the fingerprint.
The AT77C104B operates within a voltage range of 2.3V to 3.6V, draws a maximum of only 6 mA during fingerprint acquisition and less than 10 uA in sleep mode, making it an ideal fit for battery-powered hand-held devices.
Capitalizing on a proven technology already used in consumer applications, its high robustness is another asset that meets constraints faced by portable devices. Designed to operate between -20 and +70 degree Celsius, withstand more than 4 million swipes and resist electrostatic discharge, shocks or sweat, the AT77C104B sensor is a true guarantee of reliability.
"While designing this sensor, we paid particular attention to the most important parameters requested by mobile device manufacturers," says David Richard, Worldwide Biometrics Marketing Manager at Atmel. "Low power consumption to maintain long battery life, high resistance to usual environmental challenges that can affect mobile devices and multiple packaging options will make this product simple for our customers to use. The AT77C104B also provides the additional benefit of replacing space-consuming navigation buttons while still allowing robust designs on the final product. And the price is attractive too, starting at less than $6 for high-volume orders," he adds.
Samples of the AT77C104B and evaluation kits are now available. Pricing depends on the packaging option. |
