Personalizable Authenticity Features on Data Carriers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for personalizing security documents, such as identification cards and passports, require separate processes for producing magnetic and fluorescent features, which are not economically viable or rapid enough for practical applications like border control, and lack redundancy in security features for reliable verification.
Innovation Solution
A data carrier with personalizable authenticity features composed of both color-active and magnetizable components that can be simultaneously modified by high-energy radiation, such as a laser beam, to create luminescent and magnetic effects, allowing for irreversible destruction of these features to form a negative image or magnetic field-free area, enhancing security through combined and redundant features.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If separate processes are used for producing magnetic and fluorescent features, then each feature can be produced with dedicated methods, but the process complexity increases and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple security feature production processes (magnetic and fluorescent) into a single laser irradiation step. The laser beam simultaneously modifies both magnetic particles and fluorescent materials in the coating layer, creating multiple security features in one operation. This merging of processes directly resolves the contradiction by maintaining reliability through multiple security features while improving productivity by eliminating sequential processing steps.
Solution Approach 2:
The laser irradiation system is designed to perform multiple functions simultaneously: it creates magnetic patterns, fluorescent patterns, and their combinations all through a single irradiation process. The system can selectively activate different materials in the coating layer based on their specific laser response characteristics, making the process universal for producing various security features without requiring separate dedicated equipment for each feature type.
2Reliability
If multiple separate security features are produced, then security reliability improves, but the manufacturing process becomes more complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the production of magnetic and fluorescent security features into a single integrated process. Both types of features are embedded in the same coating layer and modified by the same laser irradiation system. This eliminates the need for separate production lines, equipment, and process controls for each security feature type, thereby reducing manufacturing complexity while maintaining multiple security layers for enhanced forgery protection.
Solution Approach 2:
The coating layer is designed as a composite material containing both magnetic particles and fluorescent materials in a single formulation. This composite structure allows both types of security features to be produced simultaneously from one layer during laser irradiation. The composite material approach simplifies the manufacturing process by eliminating the need for separate coating layers and separate processing steps for each security feature type.
3Productivity
If laser parameters are optimized for one material type, then processing efficiency improves, but the ability to process multiple material types decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The coating layer is designed with spatially varying properties to accommodate different material types. Different regions of the coating layer can contain magnetic particles, fluorescent materials, or both, allowing the laser to process each region according to its specific requirements. The laser parameters can be dynamically adjusted based on the local material composition, enabling high-speed processing while maintaining adaptability to different material types throughout the same coating layer.
Solution Approach 2:
The laser system is designed to dynamically change its parameters (wavelength, power, pulse duration) based on the material being processed. The system can switch between different laser modes to optimize processing for magnetic particles, fluorescent materials, or their combinations. This parameter adaptability allows the system to maintain high processing speeds while accommodating the diverse optical and magnetic properties of different materials in the coating layer.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method provides a rapid, economically viable, and highly secure personalization process that combines luminescent and magnetic features in a single step, offering enhanced protection against forgery and allowing for reliable verification using common government devices, thereby improving document security and authentication efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
irradiation with a high-energy beam, e.g. a laser beam or an electron or neutron beam, by means of changes in physical and/or chemical properties
Implementation Method 2
the intensity and/or wavelength of the beam is selected such that personalizable luminescent and magnetic authenticity features undergo a local structural change on irradiation
Implementation Method 3
The personalized luminescent authenticity features do not luminesce together with the non-personalized luminescent authenticity features on irradiation
Implementation Method 4
configured to be luminescent and magnet... the color-active component and the magnetizable component of the personalizable luminescent and magnetic authenticity feature
Implementation Method 5
the magnetizable component... is magnetizable, wherein the magnetizable component can be magnetized over its entire surface or in partial areas in a magnetizing process
Implementation Method 6
said partial areas are referred to here as magnetic components... areas of the personalized magnetic authenticity feature that were not exposed to irradiation with a high-energy beam have magnetic areas that are detected and/or visualized
Data Source
AI summary
A data carrier, in particular a plastic card, has an authenticity feature (4) introduced thereon, which can be customized during radiation with a high-energy beam. The customizable authenticity features (4) consist of at least one magnetizable component, wherein the customizable authenticity features (4) are magnetically formed. The intensity and/or wavelength of the radiation is selected such that the customizable magnetic authenticity features (4) undergo a localized structural change during irradiation, wherein the magnetizable components of the customizable magnetic authenticity feature (4) are at least partially destroyed. Following the irradiation, the customized magnetic authenticity features (4) form an area of lesser or no magnetic field in the entire image.