Nano-media Information Carrier with Intensity Control Layer
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for producing color images using sub-wavelength structures are time-consuming and costly, requiring a new master stamp for each image, and conventional color photography techniques are prone to inconsistencies and easy duplication, making them unsuitable for security applications.
Innovation Solution
A display media comprising a nano-substrate with sub-wavelength structures and an intensity control layer that allows for the patterning of luminance, enabling the production of visible and covert information, such as overt color images and infrared images, using a method that determines desired information and calculates exposure to pattern the luminance of subpixels.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional color photography techniques are used to produce color images, then production speed and cost-effectiveness are improved, but image security and anti-counterfeit capability deteriorate due to easy duplication and inconsistencies
Solution Approach 1:
The invention divides the color image into multiple spectral bands (e.g., red, green, blue channels) and encodes them separately using sub-wavelength structures with different optical resonances. Each spectral band is modulated independently through specific nano-structure geometries, enabling secure multi-layer encoding that prevents easy duplication while maintaining production efficiency through parallel processing of different spectral components
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the optical parameters of the substrate by introducing sub-wavelength structures with specific geometries (size, shape, spacing) that resonate at different wavelengths. By varying these structural parameters, the system encodes multiple spectral signatures into a single image layer, creating security features that are difficult to replicate with conventional photography while enabling rapid production through direct optical encoding
2Manufacturing precision
If bottom-up methodology with master stamp fabrication is used to produce color images using sub-wavelength structures, then manufacturing precision is improved, but production time and complexity increase due to lengthy fabrication procedures
Solution Approach 1:
The invention performs preliminary encoding by pre-calculating and pre-positioning sub-wavelength structures according to the desired color image pattern before actual image production. Master stamps or templates with pre-fabricated sub-wavelength structure arrays are created once, then reused multiple times for rapid replication of secure color images, significantly reducing fabrication time while maintaining positioning accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The invention creates a master template containing the sub-wavelength structure pattern encoding the desired color image, then uses this template to rapidly copy and replicate the same secure color image multiple times. This copying approach eliminates the need to fabricate new master stamps for each image instance, reducing production time while preserving the precise positioning and optical properties of the original design
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 approach allows for efficient and secure production of high-resolution color images with embedded covert information, reducing the need for new master stamps and minimizing inconsistencies, while ensuring security and authenticity.
Implementation Method 1
Owing to the coupling of the light with surface plasmons (SP) at the interface between a metal and a dielectric, metallic sub-wavelength structures can display strong color properties
Implementation Method 2
Ebbesen et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,040,936, Mar. 21, 2000) teaches that a metal film having periodic arrays of sub-wavelength apertures shows extraordinary optical transmission
Data Source
AI summary
A display media including a pixel layer containing subpixels for different optical bands composed of nano-scale structures and an intensity control layer that can pattern the luminance of the subpixels. The display media includes a substrate layer, a sub-wavelength substrate supported by the substrate layer and including subpixels, each subpixel defined by at least one sub-wavelength structure having at least one specific optical property including a specific optical band, at least two of the subpixels having a different specific optical property, and an intensity control layer to individually control an amount of luminance of each individual subpixel in a pattern. Some of the subpixels may have colors that define a color space, while some other subpixels may have an invisible radiation spectrum band. For example, the display media can allow both overt information (color images) and covert information to be embedded together with high density.