Grant: Alliance Grants

The goal of this partnership is to create a secure, difficult to counterfeit high throughput technology that meets emerging market needs identified by the industry partner to integrate laser printed colour pictures into picture ID documents. Colour picture IDs on official documents (passports, driving license, etc.) are currently produced using ink-based printing. This approach produces a surface image that can be altered or counterfeited. Alterations include mechanical or chemical erasure, reprinting, or delamination attacks, while counterfeiting involves reproduction of the document using substitute materials and processes. To improve the safety of picture ID documents, pictures should be located within the bulk of the materials (usually polymers). A solution currently used commercially is to laser-engrave (in this case burn) polymeric materials in the bulk to create dark areas while the untouched material remains white. This results in a black and white picture ID. While this technology improves the security of the picture ID, there is now a growing need to obtain colour picture IDs, like those created with inks, but within the material. The University of Ottawa is partnering with the Canadian Bank Note (CBN) to create a laser printing solution that will result in a secure, customizable, high resolution colour picture within the bulk of polymers used in picture ID documents.