SBIR Phase I: Universal Nanoparticle Taggants

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目建议开发一种基于一种全新类型的光学编码纳米颗粒的防伪/物体认证系统，这种纳米颗粒可以唯一地标记几乎任何物理物体，并将其与数百万其他类似物体区分开来。该系统基于稀土基上转换荧光粉(RUP)材料的激发样品，这些样品在单一不可见的红外波长下发射到从400-800 nm到许多窄的、分辨率良好的发射波段。编码的信息包含在多个发射频带的相对比率内，该相对比率与荧光体中存在的发射体的相对比率成比例。由于已经实验证明在两种颜色系统中可以分辨超过330个比例，预计在所提出的四种颜色系统中可以唯一地标记多达3000万个样本。在文档和光学介质认证、对象跟踪应用和药物篡改领域提出了原理实验的证明。这项技术在文档和其他介质认证、个人健康或安全(食品供应和药品篡改)、产品认证以及用于高通量筛选的大量生物样本的标签等多个不同领域的应用可以获得显著的、直接的和近期的商业利益。由于可以生成和读取极大量的独特标签，情报领域可能会有前所未有的机会来秘密跟踪和认证物体、个人、文件、车辆、金钱、爆炸物和武器。标签的粘贴容易、读取标签的硬件简单、与现有技术的高度兼容性以及标签的稳定、无毒的性质将促进快速的商业接受

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project proposes to develop ataggant and anticounterfeiting/object authentication system based on a totally new type of optically encoded nanoparticle which can uniquely label almost any physical object and distinguish it from millions of other similar objects. The system is based on exciting samples of rare earth-based upconverting phosphor (RUP) materials at a single invisible infrared wavelength which emit into many narrow, well resolved emission bands from 400-800 nm. The encoded information is contained within the relative ratios of the multiple emission bands which are proportional to the relative ratios of emitters present in the phosphor. Since it has been experimentally demonstrated that over 330 ratios can be resolved in a two color system, it is predicted that up to 30 million samples could be uniquely labeled in the proposed four color system. Proof of principle experiments are proposed in the areas of document and optical media authentication, object tracking applications and pharmaceutical tampering.Commercially substantial, direct and near term benefits can be derived from the application of this technology across many diverse areas such as document and other media authentication, personal health or safety (food supply and pharmaceutical tampering), product authentication and the labeling of large numbers of biological samples for high throughput screening. By virtue of the extremely large number of unique labels that can be generated and read, there could be unprecedented opportunities in the intelligence field to surreptitiously track and authenticate objects, individuals, documents, vehicles, money, explosives and weapons. The ease of applying the labels, the simplicity of hardware to read the labels, the high compatibility with existing techniques and the stable, nontoxic nature of the labels will facilitate rapid commercial acceptance