Lightgate S1

The Lightgate S1 is a digital hologram design and mastering system which has been specifically designed for the security print market. It is offered to bona fide customers operating in the security print, security hologram and ant-counterfeit markets. A qualification to purchase is seen as a prerequisite to its security value and a minimum requirement shall be membership of the IHMA.

SiTech's most recent development is the Lightspeed optical writing head, a patent pending technology than enables the high speed recording of up to 2,000 high resolution holographic pixels per second using an inexpensive low power CW laser. Second generation Lightspeed technology is utilised by the Lightgate S1.

The Lightgate S1 offers all the hardware and software features of the Lightgate B5. It has however four main advantages over the B5 which enables it to make brighter and more secure holograms with enhanced security features and sophisticated full colour 3D holograms at 100 times the speed of conventional systems:

1. The system operates at very high speeds. Pixel recording is performed 100 times faster than traditional dot matrix systems. This dramatically reduces the time needed to create master holograms and facilitates the recording of extremely high resolution holograms. The speed of recording now makes it viable to produce holographic visualisations for clients prior to recording the master hologram. High speed operation also enables the optical recombination of smaller holograms.
2. Butted pixel resolutions can now be as high as 4,000 dpi with pixels sizes as small as 6 microns. This increases the security value and decreases the risk of copying by counterfeiters. Higher resolutions also enable the production three-dimensional holograms with more channels and smoother parallax.
3. Pixels can now be recorded with almost any shape. Default shapes include circular, square and rectangular however other shapes such as letters and logos can be accommodated. It is also possible to automatically mix pixel shapes within a single hologram.
4. The Lightgate S1 employs a sophisticated non-contact auto-focusing system that maintains perfect focus of the interfering laser beams at all times. This is particularly important when recording high resolution holograms at high speed. Once the system has been calibrated no further manual focussing is required.

The Lightgate S1 also offers single beam etching of micro-features. Using this feature, a single beam of laser light is focussed to a point on the photoresist surface. This feature can be used to optically scribe holographic interference fringes to produce unique holographic security features and HOE's etc. It can also be used to create non-holographic micro-features, number and pattern codes etc.

All Lightgate systems now utilise the latest solid state, 405 nm violet diode lasers for extended life time, reliability and cost effectiveness.