Digital fingerprint identification system
First Claim
1. A method for resolving the most probable digital fingerprint from a circuit, the circuit outputting a digital fingerprint comprising a series of bits, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) polling the circuit, the circuit being disposed on a silicon die and comprising two or more devices formed on the silicon die, for a digital fingerprint, the digital fingerprint being based at least in part on an electrical characteristic of the two or more devices of the circuit due to a process by which the silicon die was manufactured, wherein the digital fingerprint comprises at least two sections, each section comprising a series of bits;
(b) recording the digital fingerprint;
(c) repeating steps (a) and (b) a desired number of times to result in one or more fingerprinting values for a corresponding iteration of said polling and said recording;
(d) calculating a most probable digital fingerprint from the one or more fingerprinting values yielded in steps (a)-(c);
(e) calculating a stability value of each bit in said digital fingerprint; and
(f) for each section, storing the stability value of the least stable bit in each section in association with a section identifier and the most probable digital fingerprint calculated in step (d).
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods, apparatuses, and systems for identifying a digital fingerprint. One embodiment compensates for the inaccuracies resulting from the unstable nature of the circuits that yield digital fingerprints and, therefore, allows for reliable identification of these digital fingerprints. According to one embodiment, the digital fingerprint (identification) is divided into a plurality of sections and stored in a database. According to this embodiment, fingerprints are identified by comparing the sections of the fingerprint to be identified with corresponding sections of the fingerprints stored in the database. The matching fingerprint, in one embodiment, is the fingerprint associated with a statistically sufficient number of matching fingerprint sections. Other embodiments of the present invention optimize the section lookup methodology based on the stability of the sections of the fingerprint.
88 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method for resolving the most probable digital fingerprint from a circuit, the circuit outputting a digital fingerprint comprising a series of bits, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) polling the circuit, the circuit being disposed on a silicon die and comprising two or more devices formed on the silicon die, for a digital fingerprint, the digital fingerprint being based at least in part on an electrical characteristic of the two or more devices of the circuit due to a process by which the silicon die was manufactured, wherein the digital fingerprint comprises at least two sections, each section comprising a series of bits; (b) recording the digital fingerprint; (c) repeating steps (a) and (b) a desired number of times to result in one or more fingerprinting values for a corresponding iteration of said polling and said recording; (d) calculating a most probable digital fingerprint from the one or more fingerprinting values yielded in steps (a)-(c); (e) calculating a stability value of each bit in said digital fingerprint; and (f) for each section, storing the stability value of the least stable bit in each section in association with a section identifier and the most probable digital fingerprint calculated in step (d). - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. An apparatus providing a digital fingerprint comprising:
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a digital fingerprint circuit, said digital fingerprint circuit outputting a digital fingerprint comprising a plurality of bits corresponding to electrical characteristics of a plurality of devices, the digital fingerprint circuit being disposed on a silicon die and comprising the plurality of devices formed on the silicon die, the digital fingerprint being based at least in part on an electrical characteristic of the plurality of devices of the circuit due to a process by which the silicon die was manufactured; and a control circuit, said control circuit operably connected to the digital fingerprint circuit and programmed to iteratively read the digital fingerprint a predetermined number of times;
wherein the control circuit calculates the most probable digital fingerprint based on the iterative reads of the digital fingerprint circuit, wherein the digital fingerprint comprises a plurality of sections, each of the sections comprising a plurality of bits, wherein the control circuit calculates a stability value for each bit of the digital fingerprint, and wherein, for each section of the digital fingerprint, the control circuit stores in the memory the stability value of the least stable bit. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9)
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10. A method for resolving an identification, said method comprising the steps of
(a) receiving a digital fingerprint corresponding to characteristics of a circuit, the circuit being disposed on a silicon die and comprising two or more devices formed on the silicon die, the digital fingerprint being based at least in part on an electrical characteristic of the two or more devices of the circuit due to a process by which the silicon die was manufactured; -
(b) dividing the digital fingerprint into at least two sections, the sections comprising a series of bits; (c) storing the sections in association with an index identification in a database; (d) repeating steps (a)-(c) a desired number of times; (e) calculating a stability value of each bit in said digital fingerprint; (f) for each section, storing the stability value of the least stable bit in each section in association with a section identifier; (g) scanning the database for sections stored in step (c) that match the sections of step (b); and (h) selecting the index identification associated with a statistically sufficient number of matching sections. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
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13. A method for identifying a digital fingerprint corresponding to an integrated circuit from a database including a population of fingerprints, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) receiving a digital fingerprint of the integrated circuit, the integrated circuit comprising two or more devices formed on the integrated circuit, the digital fingerprint being based at least in part on an electrical characteristic of the two or more devices of the integrated circuit due to a process by which the integrated circuit was manufactured, wherein the digital fingerprint comprises at least two sections, wherein the sections comprise a series of bits; (b) receiving section identifiers and corresponding stability values for each section of the digital fingerprint; (c) for each section, storing the stability value of the least stable bit in association with the section identifier; (d) using sections having the highest stability values, scanning for sections of the fingerprints stored in the database that match corresponding sections of the digital fingerprint received in step (a); (e) selecting the digital fingerprint stored in the database associated with a statistically sufficient number of matching sections. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
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Specification