Protecting hardware circuit design by secret sharing
US8732468B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignees
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 9, 2010 |
| Grant date | May 20, 2014 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 2, 2032 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F21/70
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Techniques are able to lock and unlock and integrated circuit (IC) based device by encrypting/decrypting a bus on the device. The bus may be a system bus for the IC, a bus within the IC, or an external input/output bus. A shared secret protocol is used between an IC designer and a fabrication facility building the IC. The IC at the fabrication facility scrambles the bus on the IC using an encryption key generated from unique identification data received from the IC designer. With the IC bus locked by the encryption key, only the IC designer may be able to determine and communicate the appropriate activation key required to unlock (e.g., unscramble) the bus and thus make the integrated circuit usable.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.