Fighting fraud
SFU company develops new technology.
Ananotech company based at Simon Fraser University is in the closing stages of research that could give governments new technology for fighting counterfeiters.
Nanotech Security Corp. has invented a system that mimics the iridescent qualities of a South American butterfly, the Morpho, whose wings reflect and refract light to create the impression of colours that are not physically present on those wings.
The company, which attracted almost $ 2 million in a private placement that closed in April, designs detailed, nano- scale stamps or templates that perforate thin layers of polymer film with millions of holes. The holes are 1,500 times thinner than a human hair. Light landing on the holes is broken up into its underlying spectrum, creating a visual impression of colours on the film without using ink or other colouring agents to do it. You can choose the colour or colours you want to generate by modifying the holes.
It’s similar to the effect of a hologram, but it’s capable of punching out detail such as pictures, words or numbers on a scale so minute that you’d need a high- powered microscope to see them.
“A traditional hologram doesn’t shift its colour like this,” CEO Doug Blakeway said in an interview on Tuesday. “And it’s a green technology. Everybody talks about green technologies today, but they’re so expensive to produce that everybody shies away from them. This technology is the opposite way. It’s a true green. It’s less costly to produce, so it saves the environment on top of the other things it does, and at less cost – no ink pigments or dyes or anything. It’s just pure holes.”
Nanotech is courting governments and others involved in the production of secure documents — such as currency, passports and credit cards — although the technology could also be used for the authentication of anything from a pill to a high- end designer purse or a pair of running shoes whose manufacturer is plagued by cheap knock- offs.
You could put an authentication stamp onto the clasp of a Louis Vuitton bag, for example, or Nike’s swoosh logo.
“A lot of the scientific community doesn’t understand how we can do it without a metallized surface,” Blakeway said. “We can do it on any type surface, from metal to plastic to paper.
“The security or authentication companies or government agencies instantly like it. You basically have a whole latitude that you can incorporate multisecurity features into one security feature.”
The challenge now for the company is to prove that the technology can be efficient and cost effective at commercial - scale production — such as a government treasury department’s production of currency.
The company is confident, but needs proof. That could arrive in a few weeks with the results of a commercial test run of its images.
Nanotech chief technology officer Clint Landrock, a PHD candidate at SFU, believes their invention can replace ubiquitous hologram technology.
“Right now I can take the hologram off a $ 5 bill and stick it on a $ 100 bill because it’s more or less the same hologram and it’s a sticker, so I can strip it off if I know what I’m doing,” Landrock said.
The optics were originally created for the enhancement of polymer solar cells — and in particular, the production of those cells at the lowest possible cost. “Once we realized that we could utilize [ this technology] in an anti- counterfeiting space as a security feature, we thought, wow — it was something that would be very difficult to reproduce but could lend itself to a low- cost, high- volume manufacturing process.
“There are huge applications, whether it be solar cells, enhancing windows and other optics. It’s really getting the manufacturing down. That’s the challenge.”