TRACER - A new generation of secure barcodes based on polymer membrane lasers

假冒产品是一种日益严重的现象，对欧洲经济产生了重大影响。欧盟委员会发布的一份报告显示，2018年有2700多万件物品涉嫌欺诈，相当于正品的价值估计超过7.4亿欧元。造假者面临的最大挑战是如何确保他们将不合格的产品整合到合法的分销渠道中，并进入市场。当前的可追溯性系统通过使用嵌入在供应链中原材料和最终产品的包装上的条形码、二维码或射频识别(RFID)标签中的序列化唯一识别符来解决这一问题。当材料和产品在供应链/分销链中移动时，标签被扫描，可追溯性被添加为元数据。然而，条形码和二维码有一个很大的限制：它们很容易被复制或移除/替换。在ERC起始赠款ABLASE(赠款协议ID 640012)范围内，我的团队开发了一种新的有机半导体激光器，具有一个关键特征：它们是灵活的。重要的是，这些聚合物膜激光器可以用作安全功能。我们能够将激光以条形码的形式部署在钞票上，信号具有极好的稳定性。在TRACE中，我们的目标是展示将聚合物薄膜激光器部署为小批量高价值商品的基于条形码的安全功能的技术可行性，以充分的市场分析和细分以及商业战略为后盾，验证概念实施。

Product counterfeiting is a growing phenomenon with significant impact on European economy. A report published by the European Commission showed that in 2018 more than 27 million articles were suspected of being fraudulent, with the value of the equivalent genuine products estimated at over EUR740 million. The biggest challenge for counterfeiters is how to make sure they integrate their sub-standard product in the legitimate distribution channels and reach the market. Current traceability systems address this problem by using serialised, unique identifiers embedded in barcodes, QR codes or radiofrequency identification (RFID) tags placed on the packaging of the raw materials in the supply chain and the final product to reach the consumer. As the materials and the products move through the supply/distribution chains, tags are scanned and traceability is added as metadata. However, barcodes and QR codes have a significant limitation: they can be easily duplicated or removed/replaced. Within the ERC Starting grant ABLASE (grant agreement ID 640012), my group developed a new class of organic semiconductor lasers, with a key feature: they are flexible. Importantly, these polymer membrane lasers can be used as a security feature. We were able to deploy the lasers as barcodes on banknotes, with excellent stability of the signal. In TRACER, we aim to demonstrate the technical viability of deploying the polymer membrane lasers as barcode-based security features for low volume-high value goods, in a proof of concept implementation backed by thorough market analysis and segmentation, and business strategy.