Oxide Semiconductor Transistor Segmentation for Low-Power Biometric Authentication
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing demand for secure and low-power semiconductor devices in IC cards and electronic devices poses challenges due to the need for biometric authentication, which requires additional semiconductor components, leading to increased power consumption and circuit size, and existing nonvolatile memories have high power consumption during writing and reading operations.
Innovation Solution
A semiconductor device incorporating a transmission/reception circuit, control circuit, analog-to-digital converter circuit, memory device, and fingerprint sensor, where at least one transistor in each circuit includes an oxide semiconductor in the channel formation region, enabling efficient biometric data storage and comparison with low power consumption, and using a combination of volatile and nonvolatile memory regions for long-term data retention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If fingerprint authentication systems, memory devices, and other semiconductor components are integrated into IC cards, then secure authentication and data retention capabilities are improved, but power consumption and circuit area increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the semiconductor device into distinct functional regions: a first region containing transistors with oxide semiconductor layers for low-power operations (authentication control, A/D conversion), and a second region containing transistors without oxide semiconductor layers for high-performance operations (memory writing/reading). This segmentation allows the system to achieve secure authentication and data retention while minimizing overall power consumption by using oxide semiconductor transistors only where low leakage current is critical.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies oxide semiconductor layers locally to specific transistors based on their functional requirements. Transistors requiring extremely low off-state current for data retention and authentication control (first transistors) receive oxide semiconductor layers, while transistors requiring high speed but tolerant of higher leakage (second transistors in memory circuits) use conventional semiconductor materials. This local quality differentiation optimizes the balance between power consumption and performance.
2Reliability
If fingerprint authentication systems, memory devices, and other semiconductor components are integrated into IC cards, then secure authentication and data retention capabilities are improved, but circuit area increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the circuit area into two functional zones: a first region with oxide semiconductor transistors for authentication and control functions, and a second region with conventional transistors for memory operations. This segmentation allows efficient space utilization by placing low-power components only where absolutely necessary, rather than uniformly across the entire chip, thereby reducing overall circuit area while maintaining security.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the material parameter (semiconductor layer composition) of transistors based on functional requirements. By using oxide semiconductor layers with inherently low off-state current characteristics in authentication-critical transistors, the design achieves high reliability without needing to increase the size of these specific components, thus optimizing circuit area utilization.
3Use of energy by moving object
If oxide semiconductors are used in transistors for low power consumption, then power consumption is reduced, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the transistor population into two groups: oxide semiconductor transistors requiring low power (first transistors) and conventional transistors for high-speed operations (second transistors). This segmentation simplifies manufacturing by limiting oxide semiconductor processing to only the necessary portion of the chip, rather than requiring oxide semiconductor fabrication across the entire wafer, thereby reducing overall manufacturing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies oxide semiconductor material locally to specific transistor regions where low leakage current is critical, while using conventional semiconductor materials in regions where high speed is prioritized. This local quality approach reduces manufacturing complexity by minimizing the scope of complex oxide semiconductor fabrication processes to only the essential areas, rather than requiring uniform complex processing across the entire device.
Data Source
AI summary
To provide an authentication system and a semiconductor device utilizing the system.The semiconductor device includes a transmission/reception circuit, a control circuit, an analog-to-digital converter circuit, a memory device, and a fingerprint sensor. At least one of the control circuit, the analog-to-digital converter circuit, and the memory device includes a transistor including an oxide semiconductor in a channel formation region. The control circuit has a function of receiving an instruction signal from the outside of the semiconductor device through the transmission/reception circuit. The memory device has fingerprint data for comparison and confidential information. The control circuit has a function of comparing fingerprint data to be compared which is obtained by the fingerprint sensor and the fingerprint data for comparison. The control circuit has a function of transmitting the confidential information to the outside of the semiconductor device through the transmission/reception circuit when the fingerprint data to be compared and the fingerprint data for comparison match each other.