Circuit for protecting chips against IDD fluctuation attacks

Details Circuit for protecting chips against IDD fluctuation attacks Circuit for protecting chips against IDD fluctuation attacks

1998-07-10

2003-05-20

Cuneo, Kamand (Department: 2829)

Electricity: measuring and testing

Measuring, testing, or sensing electricity, per se

With rotor

Reexamination Certificate

active

06566858

ABSTRACT:

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not applicable.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to tamper proof integrated circuit devices.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There is a fluctuation in current whenever an integrated circuit register change state. If there is a high enough signal to noise ratio, it is possible for an attacker of a tamper proof security system to monitor the difference in a standard I
dd
current line that may occur when programming over either a high or a low bit. The change in I
dd
can reveal information about keys or data. This is obviously undesirable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system resistant to attack by means of monitoring fluctuations in current lines.
In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of providing for resistance to attack of an integrated circuit by means of monitoring current changes in a current signal in the integrated circuit, said method comprising the step of including a spurious noise generation circuit as part of said integrated circuit for emitting electromagnetic noise and reducing Signal to Noise Ratio to obscure information in the current signal that is meaningful for the attack.
The noise generation circuit can comprises a random number generator such as a LFSR (Linear Feedback Shift Register).


REFERENCES:
patent: 4495560 (1985-01-01), Sugimoto et al.
patent: 4771276 (1988-09-01), Parks
patent: 5095270 (1992-03-01), Ludeke
patent: 5804975 (1998-09-01), Alers et al.
patent: 5872849 (1999-02-01), Sudia
Telecommunicatins media.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Circuit for protecting chips against IDD fluctuation attacks does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Circuit for protecting chips against IDD fluctuation attacks, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Circuit for protecting chips against IDD fluctuation attacks will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3004527