What is Secure Hologram Technology?

• Security holograms are realistic optically variable images created with laser beams, traditionally used for anti-counterfeiting purposes across multiple sectors such as consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, banking and government-issued documents.
• Types of security holograms, including dot matrix or image matrix holograms, provide different optical security levels and can be enhanced using advanced technologies like electron-beam lithography.
• Security holograms help to ensure authenticity and offer effective anti-counterfeiting measures.
• Due to holography being public know-how and commercially available, holograms are vulnerable to counterfeiting. This prompts the need for more advanced DOVID solutions.
• A superior solution is the non-holographic KINEGRAM, that offers higher security through its more complex and strictly protected optical technology.

Producing Complex Holograms with Interference Patterns

How are interference patterns used to produce realistic and complex holograms? The process begins with creating an interference pattern between two coherent laser beams, capturing the light’s phase and intensity. This pattern is then used to create sinusoidal gratings which form the basis for most holographic effects — including detailed and realistic two-dimensional images.

Evolution of Security Hologram Technology

Security holograms have evolved significantly since their inception, moving beyond mere novelty items. For many years, anti-counterfeiting holograms have combined art, technology, and precision engineering to protect brands and ensure product authenticity. These holograms are often used as security labels, making them more difficult for counterfeiters to replicate.

Role of Security Holograms in Industry

Security hologram technology still plays a role in various industries, enhancing security and preventing unauthorized replication. Whether on pharmaceutical goods, cosmetics, brand products, credit cards or tax stamps, holograms provide a robust layer of protection. These more secure holographic technologies should not be confused with holographic displays, which belong to a different category.

Types of Security Holograms

Security holograms can be categorized into several types, each offering distinct characteristics and visual impressions. Here are some of the most commonly used technologies in the realm of security holograms:

1. 2D/3D Holograms: These holograms use multiple layers of 2D images to create the illusion of depth. As the viewing angle changes, the images shift, providing a three-dimensional effect.
2. Dot Matrix Holograms: Created using lasers to form an array of diffraction points, these holograms typically consist solely of rainbow-like images. They are rarely used for high-security applications such as banknotes or government-issued documents.
3. Image Matrix Holograms: Created by demagnifying a micro image onto photo resist plates, which allows one to explore a multitude of holographic effects. They often protect consumer goods and pharmaceuticals.
4. E-Beam Holograms (Electron Beam): Produced using electron-beam lithography, these are high-resolution holograms with elevated precision, allowing for intricate microtext and nano-level details that are more difficult to replicate. These high-security applications are often used for banknotes or government-issued documents.

Constraints of Hologram Technology

While holograms are widely recognized for their properties, they are marked by certain limitations - including vulnerability to counterfeiting - and being pixelated on microscopic level. With holography being public know-how and commercially available, there is a need for more advanced solutions when it comes to high-security applications such as banknotes or government-issued identity documents.

In that regard, a globally recognized, more advanced DOVID technology is the non-holographic KINEGRAM by OVD Kinegram, which is based on proprietary and strictly protected know-how. Using vector-based arrangement of highly precise micro- and nanostructures, it provides superior levels of security and makes replication extremely difficult.

Creating holograms involves an understanding of optics, laser technology, and interference principles. This section explains the fundamental principles that make holographic imaging possible and reliable for security applications.

Laser Light and Interference Patterns

The core of creating holographic images is laser light. The laser beam is split into two beams—the reference beam and object beam—which form interference patterns when recombined. This pattern is recorded onto a photographic plate or another medium, capturing the light waves direction and phase information.

Two coherent laser beams are used: the object beam illuminates the object, while the reference beam hits the recording medium. When these beams meet, they form an interference pattern containing all the information needed to create the three-dimensional image of the illuminated target.

Recording Medium and Chemical Development

Interference fringes, especially gratings, are recorded on a medium, like a photographic plate, capable of capturing fine details to ensure hologram quality. After recording, the pattern undergoes chemical development, resulting in a corrugated surface. Proper handling of light waves and reducing vibration are critical for clarity, often using specialized equipment like vibration isolation with sand or modern pneumatic isolation systems.

The process of creating holograms for security purposes starts with designing features that reflect a brand’s or object's identity and security needs. This can include incorporating specific logos, colors, and unique custom elements, which not only enhance security but also reinforce recognition.

For example, some credit cards use holograms to prevent unauthorized copying, ensuring both brand integrity and consumer trust. The final hologram must be visually appealing and secure.

Key Steps in Security Hologram Creation

1. Design Phase: A designer envisions how the security hologram should look under different observation angles.
2. Laser Beam Interaction: A coherent laser beam is directed onto an object and a photographic plate. This interaction forms interference fringes that create the hologram. The object wave and reference wave contribute to forming an interference pattern, which is recorded on the photographic plate as the recording medium.
3. Chemical Development: The interference patterns are developed on holographic plates to reveal the resulting corrugations.
4. Master Plate: The corrugations of the security hologram are then transformed into a master by using electroforming typically nickel is used. This master plate is used as template for mass production, ensuring accurate replication.

Enhancing Security Hologram Accuracy

The quality of the hologram depends on the structuring of the light's interference pattern. Techniques like using pneumatic isolation systems to dampen vibrations can enhance the accuracy of security hologram creation.

For even greater security, it is recommended to use more advanced types of DOVIDs, such as the KINEGRAM by OVD Kinegram. It provides unparalleled levels of anti-counterfeiting security, enhances visual appearance, can incorporate disparate sophisticated techniques and is based on secret, proprietary know-how. The highly precise micro- and nanostructures provide dynamic crisp and clear optical effects, making verification simpler and more reliable.

Security holograms are still deployed for a wide range of security-focused applications:

• Pharmaceutical Industry: Holograms ensure compliance and inhibit the counterfeiting of drugs. They often include advanced security features like microtext and QR codes. The use of holographic interferometry can also be found in quality control processes within the pharmaceutical industry.
• Banking: Credit and debit cards use holograms to safeguard against fraud. Their visual effects provide easy recognition and a certain level of protection against counterfeiting - the incorporation of holographic technology adds an extra layer of protection.
• Government-Issued IDs: Security holograms are used on some passports and ID cards to help verification, ensure authenticity and prevent alterations. However, the limitations of hologram technology gave way to the use of more sophisticated DOVID technologies such as the KINEGRAM, which protects government-issued documents in more than 120 countries against counterfeiting and manipulation.

• Anti-Counterfeiting Security: Security holograms offer protection against replication due to their intricate production process. However, the abilities of counterfeiters and the commercial availability of hologram technology reduce the effectiveness of holograms in high-security applications. More sophisticated DOVIDs such as the non-holographic KINEGRAM are state-of-the-art for high-security purposes.
• Cost-Effective: Holograms remain a cost-effective security solution, offering robust protection and authentication benefits. While the growing need for more advanced DOVID features requires additional investments in more sophisticated technologies, these do not present a cost disadvantage. On the contrary: they can help to avoid the detrimental costs of counterfeiting down the line.
• Enhanced Visual Verification: Their dynamic, multi-dimensional effects make holograms highly visible and rather easy to verify. However, with hologram technology being commercially available, skilled counterfeiters can replicate these effects. Highly secure applications such as government-issued ID documents or banknotes require more advanced DOVID solutions such as the KINEGRAM.

A non-holographic KINEGRAM feature from OVD Kinegram differs from hologram features in several important ways:

• Enhanced Security: KINEGRAM elements rely on strictly protected, secret and non-holographic technology which uses extremely precise micro- and nanostructures, resulting in highly defined and clearly directed movement effects that can be observed when the viewing angle is changed.
• Unique Visual Effects: The KINEGRAM technology is able to create unique visual effects and impressions that are not within reach of conventional holograms. This results in better design integration, enhanced visual appearance and most importantly, easy visual recognition.
• Proprietary Structures: KINEGRAM features are based on proprietary, non-holographic technology for creating their underlying vector-arranged micro- and nanostructures. The technology is exclusively offered to governments and not commercially available, resulting in superior security.

Security hologram technology typically creates two-dimensional images that enhance security across various sectors.

This article covered the diverse types of holographic technologies, their applications in pharmaceuticals, banking and brand protection, their advantages as well as their limitations, especially for higher security applications. It also discussed the need for more sophisticated DOVIDs such as the non-holographic KINEGRAM as a superior alternative for high-security purposes such as protecting government-issued IDs or banknotes.

The advantages of holograms, including anti-counterfeiting security, effective visual verification, and cost-efficiency, used to make them a preferred choice for safeguarding products and documents. Today, more advanced DOVIDs such as the KINEGRAM are state-of-the-art when it comes to the protection of passports, ID cards and other government-issued documents.

What are security holograms used for?

Security holograms are used for securing and authenticating products or documents to combat counterfeiting. They serve as a reliable method to ensure the authenticity of brands and items.

What is secure hologram technology?

Secure hologram technology enhances security by utilizing typically two-dimensional images created with laser light, effectively combating counterfeiting.

How are holograms created for security purposes?

Holograms for security purposes are created by a multiple of commercial technologies, including dot matrix, image matrix, or even advanced technologies like electron-beam lithography depending budget and desired security level.

What are the advantages and limitations of using holograms?

Using holograms provides robust anti-counterfeiting protection, helps to make verification easier and cost-effective while also delivering an engaging visual experience. However, their limitations in technology and their commercial availability make them less suited for high-security applications.

What advantage do KINEGRAM features offer compared to holograms?

KINEGRAM features offer enhanced security and anti-counterfeiting resistance, alongside a virtually unlimited selection of highly defined and eye-catching visual effects. This is due to the extremely precise, non-holographic KINEGRAM technology.

How do KINEGRAM features differ from holograms?

KINEGRAM features differ from holograms in their underlying structures: while holographic technology uses pixelated structures, the KINEGRAM uses vectorized, highly precise non-holographic nano- and microstructures.