Identity card with a humanly visible authenticity feature

Details Identity card with a humanly visible authenticity feature Identity card with a humanly visible authenticity feature

1995-10-23

1999-08-31

Fridie, Jr., Willmon

Printed matter

Having revealable concealed information, fraud preventer or...

Utilizing electromagnetic radiation

283109, 283111, B42D 1500

Patent

active

059443561

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a multilayer data carrier bearing general printed data, having at least one opaque layer and at least one transparent layer containing additives which are absorbent for a laser beam, whereby information is incorporated in the transparent layer by means of a laser beam in the form of local changes in the optical properties of the layer.
Data carriers in the form of identity cards, credit cards, bank cards, cash cards and the like are used to an increasing extent in a great variety of services sectors, for example in cashless money transfer and in the in-company area. On the one hand they are typical mass-produced articles due to their widespread use; their manufacture, i.e. production of the card structure and incorporation of the card-specific user data, must be simple and cost-effective. On the other hand the cards must be designed so as to be protected against forgery and falsification to the greatest possible degree. The many types of identity cards already on the market and still in the developmental stage reflect the efforts of the relevant industry to optimize these two contrary conditions.
DE-C 31 51 407 discloses for example an identity card wherein a plastic layer is provided in the card as a recording medium which appears completely transparent when viewed normally but absorbs the light of a laser beam so strongly that the laser beam causes blackening in the film. Pictures or data can thus be incorporated in the basically transparent layers in tamper-resistant fashion in the last processing step. The film suitable for laser inscription can be used either as a cover layer over the so-called card inlay or together with other transparent cover films which also appear transparent for the laser pencil. Although the identity card presented in DE-C 31 51 407 already has a high measure of resistance to forgery there are still efforts to broaden the possibilities of designing the card with respect to its visual impression and to impede falsification and total forgery of cards further by introducing additional authenticity features that are reproducible only with high technical effort.
It is thus proposed e.g. in EP-C 0 219 012 to incorporate a transparent layer suitable for laser inscription in the identity card and to cover this layer by a cover layer that is transparent both in the visual range and for the laser pencil. This layer is provided in a partial area with a lenticular screen. The layer suitable for laser inscription is inscribed by a laser through this lenticular screen. The lenticular screen focuses the laser in the layer suitable for laser inscription so that rod-shaped blackenings arise in this layer that penetrate the total thickness of the layer. If the transparent layer suitable for laser inscription is provided with data by the laser beam through the lenticular screen at various angles in this way, images arise in this layer that are fundamentally visible only at this angle. When the thus inscribed card is rotated about the particular card axis one can observe a so-called "tilt effect" since the laser-inscribed data are only visible at times during rotation.
Finally it is known from EP 0 219 011 to provide identity cards with several transparent films suitable for laser inscription. These films are selected so that it is possible to incorporate data by means of a laser beam in several layers simultaneously or only in one individual layer selectively, whereby these pieces of information can also be separated from one other by a transparent intermediate area. By suitably selecting the films it is e.g. also possible to incorporate an uninterrupted image in a film whereas the same image is simultaneously incorporated in the other film with an interruption.
The above publications have in common that information is inscribed by means of a laser beam in one or more transparent films which are suitable for laser inscription, i.e. accordingly sensitized.
The thickness of the layer suitable for laser inscription is given by the thickness of the sensitized film. In the ab

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patent: 5513019 (1996-04-01), Cueli
patent: 5634669 (1997-06-01), Colgate, Jr.

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