Fluorescent tags are valuable security elements in banknotes, documents and luxury goods. Typically, the presence/absence of fluorescent features under a certain illumination, or their characteristic spectral (color) of the fluorescent dyes are used for verification purposes. Despite their widespread use, conventional fluorescent tags based only on fluorescence intensity or color can be easily counterfeited. Recently, fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) has attracted interest as a hardly replicable covert feature to further increase the protection of valuable items. The adoption of the technology, however, has been limited by the high cost and complexity of current FLIM systems and the lack of suitable tags. FlusiSafe will address both these aspects by exploiting the achievements of the FlusiTex project in the areas of compact solid-state FLIM readers and of advanced, micro-structured fluorescent substrates. [read on]
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