Anticounterfeiting Integrated Circuits Using Hard Nanoparticles
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Solution Overview
Problem
The electronic industry faces challenges in ensuring the integrity of integrated circuits due to increasing counterfeiting, particularly through hidden malicious features in integrated circuits, which poses a national security risk as these components are critical and expensive, and traditional imaging methods like FIB and x-ray imaging can be disrupted by embedded hard nanoparticles and x-ray blocking materials.
Innovation Solution
Integrated circuits are embedded with hard nanoparticles in dielectric materials to disrupt FIB imaging and protected with x-ray blocking materials that attenuate and create noise in x-ray imaging, preventing counterfeiting by making it difficult to image the ICs using these methods.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If FIB imaging is used to image the IC, then detailed internal structure can be obtained, but the imaging process becomes destructive and time-consuming due to material evaporation
Solution Approach 1:
Hard nanoparticles are embedded in the dielectric material during IC manufacturing as a preliminary protective measure. These nanoparticles are strategically positioned to intercept and slow down the FIB beam before it reaches the interconnect structures, thereby reducing the material evaporation rate and the time required for imaging while maintaining imaging precision
2Reliability
If x-ray imaging is used to image the IC, then non-destructive 3D imaging can be achieved, but the imaging quality is degraded by x-ray absorption and scattering
Solution Approach 1:
The x-ray blocking material, which initially appears to harm the imaging process by absorbing and scattering x-rays, is converted into a beneficial security feature. The material's ability to block x-rays is leveraged to create a detectable signature that distinguishes genuine ICs from counterfeits, while the imaging system is adapted to account for the expected attenuation patterns
3Ease of operation
If traditional imaging methods are used to detect counterfeit ICs, then detection can be performed, but the detection reliability is reduced by hidden malicious features
Solution Approach 1:
Hard nanoparticles and x-ray blocking materials are embedded in the dielectric material during legitimate IC manufacturing as a preliminary anti-counterfeiting measure. These features create a known structural signature that authentication systems can verify, thereby preventing counterfeit ICs with hidden malicious features from being undetected while maintaining ease of operation through standard imaging procedures
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The use of hard nanoparticles and x-ray blocking materials effectively hinders the imaging processes used for counterfeiting, enhancing the security and integrity of integrated circuits by making it harder to detect or image malicious features, thereby reducing the risk of counterfeiting and ensuring the reliability of critical national security systems.
Implementation Method 1
hard nanoparticles disrupt the use of FIB imaging to image the IC
Implementation Method 2
FIB imaging is a destructive imaging process. An ion beam is focused onto a sample and causes evaporation of the sample at the location
Implementation Method 3
x-ray blocking material that comprises a highly attenuating material and highly noisy material. The x-ray blocking material prevents the use of x-ray imaging
Implementation Method 4
x-ray based imaging, either through transmission imaging, as in a standard radiography or computed tomography, or through backscatter imaging, such as Compton tomography
Data Source
AI summary
An integrated circuit die comprises a device layer comprising a plurality of semiconductor devices; an interconnect layer comprising a plurality of interconnect paths connecting the semiconductor devices and embedded in a dielectric material; and a plurality of hard nanoparticles embedded in the dielectric material of the interconnect layer, the hard nanoparticles having a hardness greater than a hardness of the dielectric material and of a hardness of the interconnect paths.