Facets of color laser marking in high-security ID documents

Frank Kappe; Matthias Schumacher; Klaus Schäfer; Mario Hillebrand; Michael Hennemeyer-Schwenkner; Dirk Fischer

doi:10.1117/12.640424

9 February 2006 Facets of color laser marking in high-security ID documents

Frank Kappe, Matthias Schumacher, Klaus Schäfer, Mario Hillebrand, Michael Hennemeyer-Schwenkner, Dirk Fischer

Proceedings Volume 6075, Optical Security and Counterfeit Deterrence Techniques VI; 607513 (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.640424
Event: Electronic Imaging 2006, 2006, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

Our new true-color laser personalization system (CYMart^TM) for ID cards and documents does not suffer from the disadvantage of producing only black and white images as it is known from state of the art personalization systems, which use Nd-YAG lasers. These well-established black-and-white laser marking systems are valued so highly because the marking is created inside the material. Therefore, it is protected from counterfeiting and tampering. In exactly the same manner CYMart^TM features an embedded image. CYMart^TM is based on a three-wavelength laser system, one for each primary color (red, green and blue). A deflection system is used to direct the focused beams onto the document. The wavelength-sensitive color forming process generates true-color images comprised of a combination of the 3 primary colors. The color of any image element can be determined by the intensity of each laser beam. Unlike conventional laser marking with CYMart^TM we are able to mark square-shaped dots. Until now, due to the Gaussian beam of the laser source, the marking was done with a circular beam shape, which has a non-uniform intensity profile. However, this profile results in inhomogeneous gray level of each marked dot. By introducing an aspherical phase plate into the laser beam we have the ability to manipulate the light and achieve a square-shaped dot with a uniform intensity profile. This enables us to mark an area with seamless transitions and without any color deviation.

Citation Download Citation

Frank Kappe, Matthias Schumacher, Klaus Schäfer, Mario Hillebrand, Michael Hennemeyer-Schwenkner, and Dirk Fischer "Facets of color laser marking in high-security ID documents", Proc. SPIE 6075, Optical Security and Counterfeit Deterrence Techniques VI, 607513 (9 February 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.640424

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KEYWORDS

Laser marking

Beam shaping

Laser sources

Laser systems engineering

Laser processing

Absorption

Nd:YAG lasers

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