Graphene-based micro-scale identification system

• US 10,157,338 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2016
• Issued: 12/18/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Valdes Garcia, Alberto, Pfeiffer, Dirk, Xia, Fengnian
• Primary Examiner(s): Porta, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): BOOSALIS, FANI POLYZOS
• Application Number:
  US15/145,998
• Publication Number:
  US 20170323186A1
• Time in Patent Office: 958 Days
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/26 Deposition of carbon only
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/56 After-treatment
• CPC Class Codes: C30B 23/02 Epitaxial-layer growth
• CPC Class Codes: C30B 25/02 Epitaxial-layer growth
• CPC Class Codes: C30B 33/00 After-treatment of single crystals or homogeneous polycrystalline material with defined structure C30B31/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/02 characterised by the selection of materials, e.g. to avoid wear during transport through the machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06037 multi-dimensional coding
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06046 Constructional details

Abstract

A system for labeling an object uses at least one object label made from a material that absorbs and reflects incident energy uniformly across all wavelengths of incident energy at a ratio proportional to a thickness of the material and that includes a pattern having variations in the thickness of the material along at least one of two orthogonal directions across the label. An interrogator directs a predetermined wavelength of radiation to the at least one label, and a reader to receives reflected radiation from the label at the predetermined wavelength and interprets the reflected radiation to recognize the pattern.

Claims

1. An object label comprising:

a material that absorbs incident energy at a ratio proportional to a thickness of the material;

a pattern comprising a unique identifier for the object label that is a unique two-dimensional pattern created by variations in the thickness of the material along at least one of two orthogonal directions across the label and that can be read by energy reflected through the object label; and

a plurality of individual layers, each individual layer in the plurality of individual layers comprising an individual layer thickness of about a single atom.

2. The object label of claim 1, wherein the material absorbs incident energy uniformly across all wavelengths of incident energy.

3. The object label of claim 1, wherein the plurality of individual layers comprises two layers of the material.

4. The object label of claim 1, wherein the variations in the thickness of the material comprise changes a number of individual layers of the material.

5. The object label of claim 4, wherein the changes in the number of individual layers of the material comprise a single layer change in the number of individual layers.

6. The object label of claim 1, wherein the material comprises graphene.

7. The object label of claim 1, wherein each variation in the thickness extends a given length of less than about 100 μ

m along one of the two orthogonal directions.

8. The object label of claim 1, wherein the object label comprises an overall thickness of less than about 5 nm.

9. The object label of claim 1, wherein the object label comprises an area of less than about 1000 μ

m².

10. The object label of claim 1, wherein the object label is optically transparent.

11. A system for labeling an object, the system comprising:

at least one object label comprising;

a material that absorbs incident energy uniformly across all wavelengths of incident energy at a ratio proportional to a thickness of the material;

a pattern comprising a unique identifier for the object label that is a unique two-dimensional pattern created by variations in the thickness of the material along at least one of two orthogonal directions across the label; and

a plurality of individual layers, each individual layer in the plurality of individual layers comprising an individual layer thickness of about a single atom;

an interrogator to direct a predetermined wavelength of radiation to be reflected through the at least one label; and

a reader to receive reflected radiation from the at least one label at the predetermined wavelength and to interpret the reflected radiation to read the pattern from the reflected radiation.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the system further comprises a vapor deposition system to create the pattern while depositing the material on the object.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the system further comprises a plurality of object labels, each object label comprising a unique pattern and associated with a unique object.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the material comprises graphene.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein

the variations in the thickness of the material comprise changes in the number of individual layers of the material.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein:

each variation in the thickness extends a given length of less than about 100 μ

m along one of the two orthogonal directions; and

the object label comprises an overall thickness of less than about 5 nm and an area of less than about 1000 μ

m².

17. A method for labeling an object, the method comprising:

forming a material comprising at least two layers of graphene on an interior surface of an object, the object comprising optically opaque exterior surfaces and the graphene absorbing incident energy uniformly across all wavelengths of incident energy at a ratio proportional to a number of layers of the graphene; and

forming a unique pattern in the material, the unique pattern comprising a unique identifier for the object label that is a unique two-dimensional pattern created by variations in the number of layers of the graphene along at least one of two orthogonal directions across the material and that can be read by energy reflected through the object label.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising using vapor deposition to form the at least two layers of graphene and to form the unique pattern in the material.