Nanotech’s big break

Jameson Berkow 

Mark Van Manen/Postmedia News

Doug Blakeway, CEO of Nanotech Security Corp., showing the chips that are being built into new currency. 

Holes no wider than one billionth of a metre are large enough for Nanotech Security Corp. to break into a multibillion-dollar market.

The Surrey, B.C.-based company has developed a new authentication technology based on Canadian research that could change the way countries and corporations around the world keep counterfeiters at bay.

It is the first time nanotechnology, so-called because it deals with building on a microscopic scale, has found a commercial use, says inventor and Nanotech chief technology officer Clint Landrock.

“A lot of companies talk about nanotechnology as if it is something that is done in industry all the time now, but it is really not,” the former Simon Fraser University researcher said.

“Once our technology is commercialized, it will really mark one of the first true nanotechnologies to hit an industrial scale.”

Blazing the trail for a new technology is never easy, nor cheap.

“It has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds and thousands and thousands of hours of scientists’ time,” said Doug Blakeway, Nanotech’s founding chief executive.

In September 2009, as Simon Fraser’s entrepreneur-in-residence, he was invited to view the results of a project being run by engineering science professor Bozena Kaminska with her graduate student, Mr. Landrock. At the time, the project had more to do with butterflies than security.

“We were trying to develop a new kind of polymer solar cell [with] optics that would make it much more efficient than it is today,” he said.

“As we were looking into it, we realized these were the same kind of optics and structures found on butterflies and if we could scale this up we could create a next-generation, high-definition hologram. And that is exactly what we did.”

Potential for profit became immediately apparent. “It made clear holes that were manipulated with very fine expensive machines to make the image that you want to see for authentication, but no pigments, dyes or paints go into it, just clear holes that are extremely small in size,” Mr. Blakeway said.

“So it was a type of technology that was really green in space. It intrigued me very much.”

Intrigue quickly led to employment with Mr. Landrock becoming Nanotech’s CTO and Dr. Kaminska being appointed chief scientific officer. Less than three years later, the company is capable of fitting nearly one billion individually designed and fabricated structures on to a 3″ x 3″ wafer. The process involves using “focused ion beams and electron beams to mill away one atom at a time,” he said.

When he presented what the company has dubbed its ‘NOtES’ (short for Nano-Optic Technology for Enhanced Security) as part of a keynote speech at an industry conference in San Francisco last month, Mr. Landrock achieved rock star status.

“The conference delegates, many of whom come from a technical background within the industry, were positive and enthusiastic in their response,” said Martin Arkwright, executive director of security document advisory firm Secura Monde International, based in the United Kingdom, who was in the audience for Mr. Landrock’s speech.

“Outside of the presentation, Nanotech was approached by several leading industry players interested in understanding this novel and innovative feature and it’s application processes.”

Replicating NOtES without access to expensive commercial machinery is not impossible, though Mr. Arkwright argues the “unique origination process used to create the NOtES image would, we believe, represent a significant obstacle for any potential counterfeiter to overcome.”

“The origination process and resultant visual effects are distinctly different from anything we have seen on the market today.”

With more than US$600-billion made through the distribution of fake money and products globally each year, according to the Washington-based International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, it is hardly surprising Nanotech has caught the attention of central bankers and chief executives around the world.

“We have been making great progress with world banks and federal reserves at introducing our technology,” said Mr. Blakeway, although confidentiality agreements prevent him from mentioning any by name.

The global banknote printing market is worth in excess of US$4.2-billion a year, Secura Monde estimates. JDS Uniphase Corp., a California-based optical solutions provider worth more than US$3.2-billion, said earlier this month it sees “steadily rising demand” for its anti-counterfeiting products in particular.

Potential applications for NOtES extends well beyond the single-use function Nanotech is targeting.

“Imagine a woman carrying a handbag made by Louis Vuitton, for example, and as light strikes the imagery perhaps on the side of the latch, it would change colours, which would both indicate authentication and brand recognition,” Mr. Blakeway said.

“So it could become a great marketing tool for a company as well.”

Mr. Arkwright foresees NOtES being infused into identification documents such as passports and drivers licences, in addition to secure products such as cars or pharmaceuticals. And Nanotech will be leading the charge.

“We would expect Nanotech to become an established provider of secure anti-counterfeiting technologies across a range of applications and products,” he said.

“We have only just begun to see the potential of this technology.”

Fonte: Financial Post