SBIR Phase I: Universal Nanoparticle Taggants

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project proposes to develop a taggant 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