Unique identifier derived from an intrinsic characteristic of an integrated circuit

• US 8,386,990 B1
• Filed: 12/07/2010
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xilinx, Inc. (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Xilinx, Inc. (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Inventors: Trimberger, Stephen M., Lesea, Austin H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kik, Phallaka
• Application Number:
  US12/961,753
• Time in Patent Office: 812 Days
• Field of Search: 716/55, 716/110, 716/136, 700/116, 703/14, 257/798, 326/16, 326/36, 326/38, 326/41, 326/47, 326/101, 713/176, 713/180
• US Class Current: 716/136
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/73 by creating or determining hardware identification, e.g. serial numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2223/5444 for electrical read out
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2223/54473 for use after dicing
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 23/544 Marks applied to semiconductor devices or parts, e.g. registration marks, alignment structures, wafer maps test patterns for characterising or monitoring manufacturing processes H01L22/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00 Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/0002 Not covered by any one of groups H01L24/00, H01L24/00 and H01L2224/00

Abstract

An embodiment of the invention relates to an integrated circuit such as an FPGA wherein a stable unique identifier is produced by reading an intrinsic characteristic of the IC such as a physically unclonable function, and a related method. In one embodiment, a first unique identifier is generated using the intrinsic characteristic and is subdivided into a plurality of first subsets. A second unique identifier is received and subdivided into a plurality of second subsets. The first and second subsets are compared to identify matching subsets to generate the stable unique identifier. Each of the one or more matching subsets includes a particular one of the plurality of first subsets that matches a corresponding one of the plurality of second subsets. The stable unique identifier can be integrated into logic of the IC. Prior to comparing the subsets, the first and second subsets can be transformed with one-way functions.

Claims

1. A method to generate a stable unique identifier derived from an intrinsic characteristic of an integrated circuit (“

IC”

), comprising;

generating a first unique identifier using the intrinsic characteristics of the IC;

subdividing the first unique identifier into a plurality of first subsets;

receiving a second unique identifier;

subdividing the second unique identifier into a plurality of second subsets; and

comparing, using the integrated circuit, the plurality of first subsets with the plurality of second subsets to identify one or more matching subsets to generate the stable unique identifier, wherein each of the one or more matching subsets includes a particular one of the plurality of first subsets that matches a corresponding one of the plurality of second subsets.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first unique identifier comprises a physically unclonable function.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the intrinsic characteristic of the IC comprises a delay of signals propagating through wires and transistors of the IC.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising shifting the one or more matching values in a linear feedback shift register to produce the stable unique identifier with an approximately equal number of 1s and 0s.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising transforming the plurality of first subsets with a first one-way function, and transforming the plurality of second subsets with a second one-way function prior to the comparing of the plurality of first subsets with the plurality of second subsets.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising integrating the stable unique identifier into logic of the IC.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second unique identifier comprises an authorization code for a design that is to be instantiated in the IC.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the stable unique identifier is EXCLUSIVE ORed with bus data of the IC before the bus data is transmitted.

9. An integrated circuit (“

IC”

), comprising;

an intrinsic characteristic reader configured to read an intrinsic characteristic embedded in the IC to produce a first unique identifier for the IC;

a first subset generator configured to divide the first unique identifier into a plurality of first subsets;

a receiver configured to receive a second unique identifier for the IC;

a second subset generator configured to divide the second unique identifier into a plurality of second subsets; and

a comparator configured to compare the plurality of first subsets with the plurality of second subsets to identify one or more matching subsets to generate a stable unique identifier, wherein each of the one or more matching subsets includes a particular one of the plurality of first subsets that matches a corresponding one of the plurality of second subsets.

10. The integrated circuit of claim 9, wherein the first unique identifier comprises a physically unclonable function.

11. The integrated circuit of claim 9, further comprising a linear feedback shift register configured to shift the matching values to produce the stable unique identifier with an approximately equal number of 1s and 0s.

12. The integrated circuit of claim 9, further comprising a first one-way function configured to transform the first subsets, and a second one-way function configured to transform the second subsets prior to the comparator identifying the one or more matching subsets.

13. The integrated circuit of claim 9, wherein the stable unique identifier is EXCLUSIVE ORed with bus data of the IC before the bus data is transmitted.

14. A method to generate a stable unique identifier for an integrated circuit (“

IC”

) derived from an intrinsic characteristic of the integrated circuit, comprising;

generating a first unique identifier using the intrinsic characteristics of the IC; and

generating, using the integrated circuit, the stable unique identifier by one of;

(1) employing an error correction code for the first unique identifier wherein the first unique identifier comprises a first physically unclonable function, or (2) employing subsets of the first unique identifier.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein generating the stable unique identifier by employing an error correction code comprises:

generating an error correction code for the physically unclonable function;

storing the error correction code external to the IC;

generating a second physically unclonable function; and

correcting the second physically unclonable function using the error correction code.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the second physically unclonable function comprises an attempted regeneration of the first physically unclonable function.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein the error correction code has a functional Hamming distance of 16 bits.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the error correction code comprises a two-dimensional error correction code.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the two-dimensional error correction code comprises a two-dimensional representation of the first unique identifier, row check bits, column check bits, and check bits on check bits.

20. The method of claim 14 wherein generating the stable unique identifier by employing the subsets of the first unique identifier comprises:

subdividing the first unique identifier into a plurality of first subsets;

receiving a second unique identifier;

subdividing the second unique identifier into a plurality of second subsets; and

comparing the plurality of first subsets with the plurality of second subsets to identify one or more matching subsets, wherein each of the one or more matching subsets includes a particular one of the plurality of first subsets that matches a corresponding one of the plurality of second subsets.