Project description
Good-bye to fake authenticity tags on counterfeit products
In an increasingly globalised and digitally savvy era, current methods to verify the authenticity of goods from shoes to pharmaceuticals are proving inadequate. When it comes to medicine, the case is particularly urgent. Sick children are dying from the use of counterfeit pneumonia medicines. Anti-counterfeit measures including tamper-proof seals and security numbers as well as high-tech methods like RFID tags, colour-shifting inks and holograms are widely used. However, these are easily ‘clonable’. Funded by the European Research Council, the NanoPUF project aims to develop unclonable nanotechnology-based physical tags that can be authenticated via a 3D-printed portable microscope. The tags are reliable and inexpensive to produce, and the technology to read them is similarly cost effective and reliable.
Objective
The problem: 119 billion EUR worth of counterfeit and pirated goods were sold in the EU in 2022 (Europol/EUIPO). Counterfeiting of goods remains a challenge for our society, increasingly so in a globalised world with long supply chains. Concurrently, the market for sensitive goods, such as medicine has also increased, further exemplifying the need for anti-counterfeit measures. The WHO estimates ~ 100,000 children under five die annually from taking counterfeit pneumonia medication. Current anti-counterfeit measures include tamper-proof seals, security numbers, RFID tags, colour-shifting inks as well as holograms etc.. However, current strategies to prevent counterfeiting of authentic goods are proving inadequate. The lack of a simple and robust way of verifying the authenticity of a product is causing economic and human harm. Simply put, the features in current physical authentication tags are clonable.
The solution: We propose first steps towards the commercialization of nanotechnology-based unclonable physical tags which can be attached to product packaging and authenticated via a 3D-printed portable microscope. This will result in cheap, reliable and fool-proof encryption AND cheap, reliable and fool-proof decryption. Our work, having advanced in the past years from a visionary idea to a prototype, offers an anti-counterfeit packaging solution and can become a part of the supply chain logistics in industries from pharmaceuticals to luxury goods and even for currency.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept GrantsHost institution
80539 MUNCHEN
Germany