Apple granted another patent for under-display Touch ID on iPhone

Apple has been granted another patent pertaining to an under-display fingerprint scanner that could one day debut in the iPhone.

The patent, published Tuesday by the USPTO and filed for by Apple in September 2019, is titled 'Under-display fingerprint sensing based on off-axis angular light' and its abstract states:

An apparatus for touch-sensing includes a light-emitting layer covered by a transparent layer and configured to illuminate a surface touching the transparent layer and to allow transmission of reflected light rays from the surface to underlying layers. The underlying layers include an optical coupling layer, a collimator layer and a pixelated image sensor. The optical coupling layer bends the reflected light rays to create oblique light rays. The collimator layer includes a number of apertures to collimate the received light rays. The pixelated image sensor senses the collimated oblique light rays.

That's a very complicated way of confirming that Apple continues to explore the use of an under-display Touch ID sensor that could one day be featured on the iPhone. We were previously led to believe at one point that Apple's best iPhone, the iPhone 13, would include the feature, or that this year's iPhone 14 might be the first to get the tech. Ming-Chi Kuo reported in September the feature might not be coming until next year.

Apple's patent says that such a feature would be "particularly advantageous for verification and/or authentication in an electronic device." As with all patents, the usual caveat that the idea on paper does not guarantee this feature will ever see the light of day in an Apple product applies.

Apple has managed to bring back Touch ID to its best iPad, the iPad Air through an innovative fingerprint sensor on the top button that controls the Lock Screen and power for the device. The new device was announced at Apple's March event and is on sale now.