Reader apparatus for upconverting nanoparticle ink printed images

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10387698-B2
Application number	US-201615552486-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 19, 2016
Priority date	Feb 19, 2015
Publication date	Aug 20, 2019
Grant date	Aug 20, 2019

Abstract

An improved system and method for reading an upconversion response from nanoparticle inks is provided. A is adapted to direct a near-infrared excitation wavelength at a readable indicia, resulting in a near-infrared emission wavelength created by the upconverting nanoparticle inks. A short pass filter may filter the near-infrared excitation wavelength. A camera is in operable communication with the short pass filter and receives the near-infrared emission wavelength of the readable indicia. The system may further include an integrated circuit adapted to receive the near-infrared emission wavelength from the camera and generate a corresponding signal. A readable application may be in operable communication with the integrated circuit. The readable application receives the corresponding signal, manipulates the signal, decodes the signal into an output, and displays and/or stores the output.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system to read an upconversion response from nanoparticle inks, the system comprising
a readable indicia printed on a substrate, the readable indicia being printed with upconverting nanoparticle inks;
a housing having a top surface and one or more supporting surfaces to the top surface, at least two or more apertures in the top surface of the housing, a first aperture of the at least two or more apertures and a second aperture of the at least two or more apertures disposed apart in the top surface of the housing;
a laser operably attached at the first aperture in operable communication with the readable indicia, wherein a near-infrared excitation wavelength is directed from the laser at the readable indicia;
a near-infrared emission wavelength created by the upconverting nanoparticle inks;
a short pass filter in operable communication with the readable indicia, the short pass filter adapted to receive the near-infrared excitation wavelength, receive the near-infrared emission wavelength, and to filter the near-infrared excitation wavelength; and
a camera operably attached at the second aperture with an optical lens of the camera in operable communication with the short pass filter, wherein the near-infrared emission wavelength is collected through the optical lens from the short pass filter.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising:
an integrated circuit in electronic communication with the camera, wherein the near-infrared emission wavelength of the readable indicia is received by the integrated circuit from the camera and wherein the integrated circuit generates a corresponding signal;
a reader application in operable communication with the integrated circuit, the reader application adapted to:
(a) receive the corresponding signal from the integrated circuit;
(b) decode the signal into an output; and
(c) display the output.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the output is displayed on a smartphone.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the signal is manipulated by the application.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising:
a housing connected to the laser, the short pass filter, and the camera;
a first aperture in the housing through which the camera receives the near-infrared emission wavelength of the readable indicia;
a second aperture in the housing through which the laser produces the near-infrared excitation wavelength.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the readable indicia is a quick-response code reader.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the substrate is an integrated circuit chip, wherein an epoxy is disposed on the integrated circuit chip and covers the readable indicia.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the epoxy further comprises a portion of opaque epoxy having one or more fillers compromising transmission properties of the epoxy and a portion of transmissive epoxy resin, wherein the readable indicia is disposed below the portion of transmissive epoxy resin.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the near-infrared excitation wavelength is 980 nanometers.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the near-infrared emission wavelength is 800 nanometers.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the upconverting nanoparticle inks are blue upconverting nanoparticle inks.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the upconverting nanoparticle inks are comprised of oleic acid capped —NaYF 4 , 25% Yb 3+ , 0.3% Tm 3+ nanoparticles in a solvent mixture of toluene/methyl benzoate (90:10 v/v) with Poly(methyl methacrylate).

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the upconverting nanoparticle inks are comprised of a doping composition of 48% Yb 3+ /2% Tm 3+ .

14. A method to read covert printed images, the method comprising the steps of:
providing a readable indicia comprised of upconverting nanoparticle ink;
exciting the upconverting nanoparticle ink with a near-infrared excitation wavelength generated by a laser;
filtering the near-infrared excitation wavelength with a short pass filter; and collecting a near-infrared emission wavelength of the readable indicia from the short pass filter through the optical lens of a camera;
decoding the near-infrared emission wavelength from the readable indicia with a reader application, wherein processing comprises:
a processing architecture having a presentation layer providing an appearance on the reader application with one or more buttons and images of fragments from the near-infrared emission wavelength;
a logic layer having one or more executable files providing control of the reader application by storing and retrieving stored objects from a database of stored objects and one or more laser interactions from the near-infrared emission wavelength; and
a data layer having an executable file for accessing data stored in the reader application.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising the steps of:
providing an output from decoding the near-infrared emission wavelength of the readable indicia with the reader application;
transmitting the associated output to a device; and displaying the associated output on the device.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising the step of:
manipulating the near-infrared emission wavelength of the readable indicia to generate an altered image; and
decoding the altered image.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein the upconverting nanoparticle ink is blue upconverting nanoparticle ink.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the near-infrared excitation wavelength is 980 nanometers.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein near-infrared emission wavelength is 800 nanometers.

20. The method of claim 14 wherein the upconverting nanoparticle inks are comprised of a doping composition of 48% Yb 3+ /2% Tm 3+ .

Assignees

• South Dakota Board Of Regents

Inventors

• Langerman David
• Kellar Jon
• Cross William
• May P Stanley
• Brackins Julian
• Meruga Jeevan
• Baride Aravind
• Rapp John

Classifications

• H10W42/40

  protecting against tampering, e.g. unauthorised inspection or reverse engineering · CPC title

• C09K11/7783

  containing two or more rare earth metals one of which being europium · CPC title

• G01N21/6456

  Spatial resolved fluorescence measurements; Imaging · CPC title

• G07D7/1205

  Testing spectral properties · CPC title

• B42D25/29

  Securities; Bank notes · CPC title