Switch prevents card skimming
09 September 2008
British company Peratech has used its QTC technology to ensure cards can only be read when authorised.
The patented QTC (Quantum Tunneling Composite) technology is used to create a tiny, ultra-thin, pressure-sensitive switch that has to be pressed before the card can be read, ensuring that cards cannot be skimmed or read without the owner’s knowledge or permission. The scam is to skim a card using a handheld scanner a short distance away and for the details from the card to be stored and either cloned or sold for financial and identity fraud.
Whereas standard composites are made from polymers filled with carbon. Some carbon particle will always contact each other to create a conduction path. As pressure is applied, more come into contact, building up conduction pathways in the percolation process.
QTC materials can transform from a virtually perfect insulator to a metal-like conductor, when deformed by compression, twisting or stretching. In QTC materials, the metal particles do not come into contact but they do get close which allows for quantum tunnelling between the particles. In quantum tunnelling, an electron is seen as a wave rather than a solid particle. When the wave meets a barrier, or non-conductive material, the wave decays exponentially rather than instantly go to zero. It may not reach zero before reaching the other side of the barrier, in which case it tunnels through the non-conductive barrier.
The transition from insulator to conductor follows a smooth and repeatable curve, with the resistance dropping exponentially. Peratech has used this capability to create what it calls a new class of components with for switching and sensing applications.
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