HKU presents microscale 3D printer for anticounterfeiting labels

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A team from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has developed a high-precision 3D printing method that can produce new polarisation-encoded 3D anticounterfeiting labels.

HKU

According to the team, led by Dr Ji Tae Kim from HKU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, the new 3D label can encrypt more digital information than a traditional 2D label. The work has been published in Nano Letters.

Diphenylalanine (FF), a species of dipeptides, was chosen as a material for data encryption due to its unique optical properties, the team said.

First author of the paper, Dr Jihyuk Yang from HKU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, explained: “FF has long attracted great attention to neuroscientists due to its association with Alzheimer's disease. Recently, FF is emerging as a new electronic and photonic device material due to its unique properties – such as piezoelectricity and optical birefringence – arising from crystalline nature.”

Dr Ji Tae Kim added that the team’s new 3D printing method combined with nature-driven molecular self-assembly can print multi-segmented 3D FF micro-pixels with programmed crystallinity for high-density data encryption.

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“By utilising different responses of the amorphous and crystalline segments to polarised light, a tiny single 3D pixel can encrypt a multi-digit binary code consisting of ‘0’ and ‘1’. The information capacity can be increased to 211 with a single eleventh-segmented freestanding pixel on a tiny 4µm2 area which is 1000 times smaller than a hair strand,” Dr Kim said.

Counterfeiting threatens the global economy and security. According to the report issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 2020, the value of global counterfeit and pirated products is estimated between US$ 1.7 and 4.5 trillion a year. Despite enormous efforts, conventional anticounterfeiting approaches such as QR codes can be easily fabricated due to limited data encryption capacity on a planar space.

Dr Kim believes that 3D printing technology can be effectively used to customise security labels on-demand anywhere and anytime, contributing to strengthening the information security of individuals and companies.