Tamper Detection IC with Real-Time Clock Calendar Logging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing metering devices and shipping containers lack effective tamper detection and mishandling monitoring capabilities, making it difficult to determine when and who is responsible for tampering or mishandling, which affects billing accuracy and damage accountability.
Innovation Solution
An integrated circuit device with a real-time clock and calendar (RTCC) circuit, a non-volatile time stamp capture register, and external inputs for tamper or mishandling sensors, including false trigger filters, to capture and store time and date information of tampering events, ensuring secure and reliable data integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If tamper detection and timestamp capture functionality is added to metering devices and shipping containers, then the ability to determine when and who is responsible for tampering is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the RTCC circuit, timestamp capture register, false trigger filter, and sensor inputs into a single integrated circuit device. This integration allows tamper detection, time stamping, and data storage to work together as a unified system, resolving the contradiction by making the device complexity manageable through consolidation while maintaining high reliability for tamper detection.
Solution Approach 2:
The integrated circuit device serves multiple functions: it detects tamper events through sensor inputs, filters false triggers, captures timestamps from the RTCC, stores timestamps in the capture register, and provides secured access control. This multi-functionality improves reliability by comprehensive monitoring while the integration keeps the overall device complexity manageable.
2Measurement precision
If a real time clock and calendar (RTCC) circuit with timestamp capture register is implemented, then accurate determination of tampering events is improved, but the loss of time for data capture and storage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The RTCC circuit continuously maintains accurate time and date information in real-time, so when a tamper event occurs, the timestamp is already available for immediate capture. This preliminary preparation of time data eliminates any delay in timestamp accuracy while minimizing data capture time through automatic triggering.
Solution Approach 2:
The false trigger filter rapidly processes sensor inputs to distinguish genuine tamper events from noise, and the timestamp capture register immediately captures the RTCC data when a valid event is detected. This rapid processing skips unnecessary delays, achieving high measurement precision without significant time loss.
3Reliability
If multiple time stamp capture registers and false trigger filters are provided, then the reliability of tamper detection is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the tamper detection system into multiple independent timestamp capture registers, each with its own false trigger filter. This segmentation allows each component to operate independently and reliably, improving overall detection reliability while organizing the complexity into manageable, modular units that can be implemented systematically.
4Reliability
If secured access to the time stamp capture register is implemented, then data integrity is improved, but the ease of operation decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements secured access mechanisms that act as intermediaries between users and the timestamp capture register. These security layers protect data integrity by controlling who can access or modify the register, while still allowing authorized operations to proceed smoothly, thus maintaining ease of operation for legitimate users.
Data Source
AI summary
If an enclosure of a metering device is opened or vandalized, application software must determine when the metering history information became unreliable, and further notification to the utility may be desirable. Likewise, a shipping container or suitcase that has been opened or mishandled during shipping transient may be attributed to a particular location and/or handling person(s) when the time and date of the mishandling occurrence are known. A transition on a special device input from a tamper or mishandling sensor captures real-time clock/calendar (RTCC) information that provides to a software application the time and date of the detected tampering or mishandling event. This transition may also cause memory storage of the RTCC information related to the event. Thus, an integrated circuit device, for example a microcontroller or any other integrated circuit device may comprise such an RTCC and external input, and, optionally, memory storage of the RTCC event occurrence.