Sacrificial Structure for Unauthorized Manipulation Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing control units in vehicles, particularly engine control units, are vulnerable to unauthorized modifications such as chip tuning, which can impair their reliability and safety functions, making it difficult for manufacturers to differentiate between authorized repairs and unauthorized manipulations.
Innovation Solution
A control unit design that incorporates a sacrificial structure on its substrate, which is irreversibly destroyed when an integrated switching device is removed, along with an electrically insulating connecting layer that ensures the sacrificial structure is destroyed upon removal, providing a visible, electrical, or haptic marker to indicate unauthorized manipulation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If sealing material and protective material are applied to protect parts from dust, air moisture, and mechanical overloading, then protection against environmental factors is improved, but the ability to differentiate between unauthorized manipulations and authorized repairs deteriorates because the material can be removed and re-applied
Solution Approach 1:
The sacrificial structure is pre-installed on the substrate before the integrated switching device is mounted. This preliminary placement ensures that any removal of the switching device will necessarily involve destruction of the sacrificial structure, creating an irreversible indicator of manipulation that cannot be reset like conventional sealing materials.
Solution Approach 2:
The sacrificial structure is designed as a disposable element that is intentionally destroyed to provide manipulation detection. Its temporary existence serves a specific protective function: to be consumed in the event of unauthorized removal, thereby providing permanent evidence of manipulation while allowing legitimate repairs to proceed.
2Ease of repair
If the integrated switching device is designed to be removable from the substrate, then ease of repair is improved, but the ability to detect unauthorized manipulation deteriorates because removal leaves no permanent indicator
Solution Approach 1:
The sacrificial structure is extracted from the functional components of the control unit and placed as a separate, dedicated element on the substrate. This extraction allows it to serve purely as a manipulation indicator without interfering with the normal removable mounting of the integrated switching device for authorized repairs.
Solution Approach 2:
The sacrificial structure is positioned and connected in advance to counteract potential unauthorized manipulation. Its pre-established connection to the switching device ensures that any removal attempt will automatically trigger its destruction, providing immediate and unambiguous evidence of tampering.
3Reliability
If the sacrificial structure is connected to the integrated switching device, then manipulation detection is improved, but the complexity of the control unit increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sacrificial structure is merged with the existing substrate and conducting track infrastructure of the control unit. By integrating it into the current structural framework rather than adding completely separate components, the complexity increase is minimized while still achieving reliable manipulation detection functionality.
Data Source
AI summary
A control unit has a substrate with an electrically conductive structure, an integrated circuit device, which is installed on the substrate in an electrically conductive manner, and a sacrificial structure on the substrate. The sacrificial structure is configured to be irreversibly destroyed if the integrated circuit device is removed from the substrate. The electrically conductive structure has at least one conducting track applied to the substrate. The sacrificial structure is formed by a segment of the conducting track. An electrically insulating connecting layer that connects the integrated circuit device, the substrate, and the segment of the conducting track is formed. The sacrificial structure can be destroyed by the connecting layer when the integrated circuit device is removed.