China Banknote Printing Technology Research Institute – Wireless-driven
2025 | Best Disruptive Technology – Winner
The winner was China Banknote Printing Technology Research Institute for Wireless-driven, ultra-thin, flexible OLED anti-counterfeiting components. Based on flexible display technology and smartphone wireless communication technology, this element can be integrated into banknotes, passports, and product packaging to provide effective anti-counterfeiting protection for goods. When powered by a smartphone’s wireless reverse charging module, …
Elisabeth Schulz
2025 | Lifetime Achievement Award – Winner
Elisabeth began as a forensic document expert with the German police before joining the ECB in 2000, where she led efforts against holographic counterfeits. She organised the first CAC Symposium in 2003, co-developed a hologram scanner in 2004, and built a comprehensive euro counterfeit hologram database. Her research, including her …
Dr Brian Holmes
2025 | Lifetime Achievement Award – Winner
Brian’s career of over three decades has shaped the foundations of security holography, from early credit card and passport holograms to today’s advanced optically variable technologies. With more than 80 patent families and 2,000+ holographic originations, he pioneered iconic features such as Spotlight™, PureImage™, Active™, and Kinetic StarChrome™. Renowned for …
Michael Boehm
2025 | Lifetime Achievement Award – Winner
From 1996 to 2011, Michael led Louisenthal through a wave of innovation, creating features like Animat®, ColourShift™, RollingStar®, and varifeye® that continue to secure banknotes worldwide. He filed over 100 international patents, pioneered micromirror and holographic technologies, and introduced windows in banknotes to rival polymer. His leadership shaped today’s cost-efficient …
Hazen Paper – Firedancer
2025 | Best Decorative / Packaging Product – Winner
The holographic effects work perfectly with the registered design. The nano wave optics were created in Hazen’s laser lab, then micro-embossed and transfer-metallised onto smooth-as-glass cover stock using Hazen’s environmentally friendly Envirofoil® and HoloJet® process. The holography is created with an optical structure that is imparted on the surface of …
ARA Authentic – Checkmyheat
2025 | Best Product Security Application – Winner
The winner was ARA Authentic for checkmyheat – a constantly warm laser marking and lighting-dependent colour-changing label based on laser-treated PVD coating system. The innovation features a laser coating that always remains a few degrees warmer than its surroundings, which shows special optical colour changes. For example, a PVD layer stack that appears …
IN Groupe – Plasmogram™ Reverso Stripe on the Polymer Philippines 500 Piso Banknote.
2025 | Best Integrated Technology / Best Document Security Application – Winner
The Plasmogram™ Reverso stripe is the result of teamwork involving the central bank, the substrate supplier, the printer and the technical and production teams of the IN Groupe/ SURYS.
Crane Currency – Beauty of Life House Note
2025 | Best Integrated Technology / Best Document Security Application – Winner
For Crane Currency – its ‘Beauty of Life House Note’, moves with light, tells a story, and earns trust at a glance. The centrepiece of the note’s security is its most daring use of Crane micro-optics to date. MOTION SURFACE®, presented in a groundbreaking super-wide format to deliver vibrant, synchronised, …
Demax Holograms – S. George Icon.
2025 | Best Origination – Winner
The St George Icon project was based on the miraculous Phanuel Icon of St George the Victorious, which was developed as a prestigious gift for the Zograf Monastery and intended for representational and ceremonial purposes. The hologram depicts excellent control of the fringes to create subtle colours.
IQ Structures – Wings for the Precious
2025 | Best Origination – Winner
Both demonstrate mastery in the art and science of optical origination, while Wings for the Precious (a hologram design for the front page of the 11th edition of the Banknote Technology Report magazine), shows impressive 3D achromatic effects with vertical and horizontal parallax, plus added diffraction.
IQ Structures – Smart Mirrors
2025 | Best Innovation in Optically Variable Technologies – Winner
The winner was IQ Structures for Smart Mirrors – an innovation based on the principle of OVD kinoform structures, which utilises the ability to mathematically define the structure. The foundation lies in a mathematical formula for a diffractive lens, which enables the viewer to see a reduced direct reflection of themselves.
Hologram Centre (Korea) – Snapshot CHIMERA® Holographic Portraits
2023 | Best Display or Emerging Technology Application of Holography – Winner
What was it for and how did it work? For 60 years, high-energy pulsed lasers have enabled the recording of extremely realistic portraits of living people within a few nanoseconds. In the 21st century, this confidential technique, which requires great skill and equipment, has almost disappeared because of the final …
Hazen Paper Company (US) – 2023 Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Book
2023 | Best Applied Decorative/Packaging Product – Winner
Who is the creative and production team? Hazen Paper’s 11th Enshrinement Yearbook cover for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts is a light show worthy of the dazzling Dome. The limited-edition 2023 cover, created with Hazen HoloJet® paper, projects an amplified refractive three-dimensional image of a …
Louisenthal (Germany) – Green LongLife RollingStar® Hologram Micromirror LEAD Mix
2023 | Best Applied Security Product – Winner
Who was the hologram for? A Housenote to demonstrate micromirror and hologram integration. What was it for and how did it work? It was developed as a Housenote to demonstrate micromirror, hologram and colourshift integration in the product portfolio. RollingStar®LEAD Mix supports the holistic concept of optimised storytelling and counterfeit …
Raith Laser Systems B.V. (Netherlands) – PicoMaster Single and Multiple Beam Direct Write Lithography
2023 | Innovation in Holographic Technology – Winner
What was it for and how did it work? It is for the next generation of hologram producers and it works better than any other mastering system that has ever been invented. What is significant about this hologram project? The PicoMaster is currently the world’s best hologram mastering system. It …