Low cost product authentication for counterfeit protection

据估计，全世界每年因假冒产品造成的损失达1万亿美元。尽管如此，认证产品的市场仍然很小。这在一定程度上是由于缺乏制作和读取身份验证标记的完全令人满意的方法。没有广泛使用的标签。我们最近开发了一种微磁力计，它灵敏度高，价格便宜。我们已经演示了它从不同来源区分简单标签的能力。为此，我们使用基频和次谐波巨磁阻抗信号的变化。我们也一直在进行二次谐波信号和基本噪声的理论和实验研究。我们在此建议开发一种新型的数字标签，它应该是便宜的，并且可以在一小块软磁带或微线中存储大量信息，难以伪造，并且可以使用微磁力计读取，它将被优化为读取二次谐波信号。这种第二代标签将提供重要的市场机会。

Losses due to counterfeiting of products are estimated to be $1 trillion annually worldwide.  Despite this, the market for authentication products is quite small. This is partly due to the lack of fully satisfactory methods for making and reading authentication tags. There are no labels in widespread use. We have recently developed a micro-magnetometer which is at the same time highly sensitive and inexpensive. We have demonstrated its ability to distinguish simple tags from different sources. For this purpose, we use changes in both the fundamental and second harmonic giant magnetoimpedence signals. We have also been conducting theoretical and experimental studies of the second harmonic signal and of noise in the fundamental. We propose here the development of a novel digital tag, which should also be inexpensive, and which can store considerable information, difficult to counterfeit, in a small piece of soft magnetic ribbon or microwire, and which can be read using the micro-magnetometer, which will be optimized for reading of the second harmonic signal. This second-generation tag could provide an important market opportunity.