Researchers create a perovskite-based scanner for fingerprints and documents

Researchers at the Dutch Organization for Applied Scientific Research and Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands have recently used a solution-processed photodetector made of a metal halide perovskite to fabricate a thin and flexible scanner. This scanner can be used to scan both fingerprints and paper documents.

"Fabricating photodetectors with low dark currents and integrating them into high-resolution backplanes remains challenging," Albert J. J. M. van Breemen and his colleagues wrote in their paper. "Here, we show that solution-processed metal halide perovskite photodiodes on top of an amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide transistor backplane can be used to create a flexible image sensor that is ~100'μm thick and has a resolution of 508 pixels per inch."

Van Breemen and his colleagues fabricated their photodetector using a solution-processed layer of Cs_0.18FA_0.82Pb(I_0.82Br_0.18)₃, containing cesium (Cs+) and formamidinium (CH(NH₂)₂ +, FA) cations. Initially, the device was designed to be integrated in solar cells, yet they later decided to test its potential in a scanner.

The photodetector has an inverted stack design, with a molybdenum-chrome alloy (MoCr) as the bottom electrode, coated with a thin HTL layer of PTAA. A [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM)'SnOx layer was placed on top of the perovskite active film, acting as an electron transport layer (ETL).

In addition, the team introduced a 50-nm-thick silicon nitride (SiN) edge cover layer (ECL) between the MoCr bottom electrode and the PTAA, which reduced electrode current leakage and consequently dark current density. Finally, they placed a 100-nm-thick transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode on top of the stack and a transparent thin-film encapsulation barrier.

By integrating their photodetector with a thin-film transistor array, van Breemen and his colleagues then created an "all in one scanner." This scanner can be used to collect high quality images of both fingerprints and documents, with a resolution of 508PPI.

By capturing high-resolution images of fingerprints and other important documents, the scanner could be used to identify fake documents or synthesized fingerprints with greater accuracy and precision. In addition, this recent study could pave the way towards the integration of perovskite image sensors or photodetectors in smartphones or other commonly used devices, to strengthen the efficiency of biometric identification tools.