Patent Publication Number: US-7210634-B2

Title: Circuit for generating an identification code for an IC

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   1. Field of the Invention 
   The present invention relates in general to circuits for generating an identification code, and in particular, to a circuit that generates an identification code that is unique to each integrated circuit in which it is embedded. 
   2. Description of Related Art 
   Identification codes (IDs) have many purposes. For example an ID may be provided in printed form (e.g., user-names or bank account numbers), in graphical form (e.g., a picture on a driver license or a barcode on a product), in the form of a magnetic field (e.g., as provided by a magnetic strip on a credit card), as an electronic code conveyed by a signal. An ID can indicate the type of object bearing the ID. For example, a barcode-encoded UPC on a cereal box in a grocery store enables a grocer to determine the price of the goods when all boxes of the same kind of cereal are printed with the same barcode. An ID can distinguish a particular object from a population of similar objects. For example a user-name may distinguish one user of a computer network service from all other users of the service, or a bank account number may uniquely distinguish a customer account from all other bank accounts. An ID can confirm that the bearer of an ID is a genuine member of a population. For example, a photograph on a driver&#39;s license is a form of ID used to confirm that the bearer of the driver&#39;s license is the individual named on the driver&#39;s license. 
   Signals conveying binary strings are often used as IDs. For example, each instance of a particular type of integrated circuit (IC) chip can be made to generate an output signal conveying a unique binary coded ID. The ID generated by each IC may be used to distinguish that IC from among all other ICs, to verify that the particular IC is a legitimate copy of an IC and not an illegitimate counterfeit. The ID generated by an IC can also be used to identify any larger electronic system in which it is incorporated. “Radio Frequency Identification” tags (RFIDs) are ICs that produce radio frequency signals conveying binary IDs. When the RFIDs are attached to objects, such as for example merchandise in a retail store, packages for delivery, the unique radio frequency ID codes they generate can serve the same identification purposes as barcodes. 
   There are economic and other incentives for people to misuse IDs. For example, when an ID identifies goods as having been produced by a particular source, a source of counterfeit goods would want to provide the counterfeit goods with IDs that incorrectly identify them as having been produced by that particular source. Thus counterfeiters not only try to counterfeit goods, they also seek to counterfeit IDs that are associated with those goods. Accordingly, efforts have been made to render IDs difficult to copy or counterfeit. For example sophisticated procedures/algorithms and manufacturing processes are sometimes used to make IDs that are difficult for a counterfeiter to copy. A hologram is one example of a difficult to reproduce ID. Sometimes IDs are hidden or encoded in a way that makes it difficult for a would-be counterfeiter to discover them. 
   One way to foil an ID counterfeiter is to make it hard for the counterfeiter to determine which part of a code is actually used as an ID. U.S. Pat. No. 5,367,148, issued Nov. 22, 1994 to Storch et al., entitled COUNTERFEIT DETECTION USING ID NUMBERS WITH AT LEAST ONE RANDOM PORTION, teaches adding one or more “random” portions (each consisting of one or more digits) to an otherwise straightforward numerical ID, and of purposely using different presentations in the “external” appearance (e.g. as printed on the outside package box) of the ID and the “inner” appearance (e.g. inside the box on a customer return registration card), for detecting counterfeits. U.S. Pat. No. 6,212,638, issued Apr. 3, 2001 to Lee et al., entitled METHOD FOR GENERATING UNPREDICTABLE AUTHENTICATION IDENTIFICATION SYMBOLS, teaches use of special mathematical functions to generate sequences of unpredictable ID symbols, and to employ an unpredictable subset of the symbols from such a sequence for an actual ID. 
   The IDs described above are “static” in that, once a particular copy of an ID is generated, it stays the same each time the ID is presented. For example a barcode ID, once printed, never changes its appearance. A product serial number, once imprinted on the casing of a product or printed on a customer registration card, never changes its value. A user-name for logging into an on-line service remains the same once assigned. 
   U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,213, issued Dec. 12, 2000 to Keith Lofstrom, entitled SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT WITH A UNIQUE IDENTIFICATION, describes a circuit (currently marketed under the trademark “ICID”) that may be incorporated into an IC chip for generating a unique ID for each IC in which it is embedded without requiring each IC to be separately processed. The ICID circuit includes an array of identification (ID) cells, and each ID cell controls the state of a separate bit of the ID to be generated based on relative doping levels within channels of transistors forming a part of the ID cell. Since the doping level randomly varies from transistor-to-transistor within an IC as a result of random process variations, the bit sequence of the ID produced by each copy of the ICID circuit is randomly established as the IC is fabricated. When the ID has a sufficiently large number of bits, the ID generated by each copy of the ICID circuit is highly likely to be unique even though a very large number of copies of the ICID circuit are manufactured. 
   The doping levels of the transistors of one or more of the ID cells of any given copy of an ICID circuit may be so similar that environmental variables such as ambient temperature and supply voltages can influence the ID bit state controlled by those ID cells. Thus, one characteristic of binary IDs produced by the ICID circuit is that a very small percentage of the bits of the ID it generates may not always be of the same state each time the ICID circuit generates the ID; the state of one or more bits of an ID may “drift” in that it changes from instance-to-instance of the generated ID. Thus, the ID that the ICID circuit produces is “dynamic” in that it does not always have exactly the same value each time it is generated. However, Lofstrom teaches that even though a few bits of each individual ID may drift, the ID can still be used to uniquely identify each IC from among a large population of ICIDs producing such IDs if the ID has a sufficiently large number of bits. Lofstrom teaches that two sufficiently long IDs may be considered with a high degree of confidence to have been produced by the same copy of an ICID circuit even though a few of their corresponding bits are not of matching states. 
   U.S. Patent Publication 2003/0151539 filed Aug. 14, 2003 by Wuidart et al and U.S. Patent Publication 2003/0151942 filed Aug. 14, 2003 by Bardouillet et al also describe a circuit that may be incorporated into an IC for generating an ID. The circuit includes a set of ID cells, each of which produces an output bit of a state that is a function of random parametric variations in the magnitudes of a pair of polysilicon resistors within each ID cell. The resistors are incorporated into a circuit outputting a 1 or a 0 bit depending on which resistor has lowest resistance when power is initially applied to the circuit. The bits produced by all of the ID cells form the output ID. In some cases, the resistance of the two resistors of a ID cell may be so similar that the ID cell&#39;s output bit may not always be of the same state every time power is applied to the ID cell. To stabilize the ID, the system temporarily increases the amount of current passing through the ID cell having the lowest resistance when the circuit is first energized, and the increased current permanently lowers the resistance of that resistor so that it will always be lower than that of the other resistor. Thereafter the ID cell will always produce the same output bit. This ID circuit produces an ID in which none of the bits vary in state, but can require a separate pin on the IC to supply high voltage power to the ID circuit to temporarily increase the supply voltage to the ID circuit to permanently reduce the resistance of the lowest resistance resistor in each ID cell. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   A circuit in accordance with the invention produces a unique binary identification code (ID) for each integrated circuit in which it is embedded by setting states of each bit of the ID as a function of random variations in material forming the IC occurring at the time the IC was fabricated. The ID circuit includes an ID generating circuit for generating the ID, a non-volatile memory, and a control circuit for writing the ID generated by the ID generating circuit into the non-volatile memory in response to an occurrence of a write cue event. Thereafter the control circuit responds to each occurrence of a read cue event by reading the ID out of the non-volatile memory and providing it as an IC output. 
   The read cue event may be, for example, application of a read code as input to the IC. The write cue event may be, for example, application of power to the control circuit, a first occurrence of a read cue event, or application of a write code as input to the IC. 
   The state of one or more bits of the ID generated by the ID generating circuit may also be a function of IC temperature or other environmental factors, and the ID may therefore not always have exactly the same value if the ID generating circuit were to generate it more than once. But by storing only one occurrence of the ID output of the ID generating circuit in the non-volatile memory, and thereafter obtaining the ID it produces as an IC output from the memory, rather than from the ID generating circuit, whenever it responds to a read cue event, the control circuit insures that the IC&#39;s output ID always has the same value. 
   In one embodiment of the invention, the control circuit also stores a flag code in the non-volatile memory at the same time it stores the ID in the non-volatile memory. Thereafter, on each subsequent occurrence of the write cue event, the control circuit first determines whether the flag code resides in the non-volatile memory and if so, refrains from again writing the ID output of the ID generating circuit into the non-volatile memory. 
   In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the control circuit blows an internal fusible link to set an indicating bit when it writes the ID into the non-volatile memory. Thereafter, on each subsequent occurrence of the write cue event, the control circuit first determines whether the indicating bit state has been set, and if so, refrains from again writing the ID output of the ID generating circuit into the non-volatile memory. 
   The claims appended to this specification particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter of the invention. However those skilled in the art will best understand both the organization and method of operation of what the applicant considers to be the best modes of practicing the invention, together with further advantages and objects of the invention, by reading the remaining portions of the specification in view of the accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to like elements. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  depicts in block diagram form an integrated circuit (IC) including a circuit in accordance with one exemplary embodiment of the invention for providing an identification code as an IC output. 
       FIG. 2  depicts the ID control circuit of  FIG. 2  in more detailed in block diagram form. 
       FIG. 3  depicts in block diagram form an integrated circuit (IC) including a circuit in accordance with an another exemplary embodiment of the invention for providing an identification code as an IC output. 
       FIGS. 4 and 5  depict alternative exemplary embodiments of the ID control circuit of  FIG. 3  in more detailed in block diagram form. 
       FIG. 6  depicts the ID generating circuit of  FIGS. 1 and 3  in more detailed block diagram form. 
       FIGS. 7 and 8  depict alternative embodiments of one of the ID cells of the ID generating circuit of  FIG. 6  in schematic diagram form. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention relates to a circuit incorporated into an integrated circuit (IC) for producing a binary identification code (ID) at an output terminal of the IC for identifying that particular IC. The specification describes exemplary embodiments of the invention considered best modes of practicing the invention, and detailed descriptions of those embodiments are provided below in sufficient detail to enable one of skill in the art to make and use the invention. However, those of skill in the art will understand that the invention, as recited in the appended claims, need not necessarily incorporate all of the various details included in the particular examples of the invention described below, and that other modes of practicing the invention as claimed are possible. 
     FIG. 1  illustrates an identification circuit  10  in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the invention embedded in an IC  12  along with other circuits  14  for communicating with circuits external to IC  12  via the IC&#39;s input/output (IO) ports  16  and pins or terminals  18 . Identification circuit  10  responds to a read cue event, suitably a serially-encoded READ command arriving via one of IO ports  16  from an external circuit, by providing as an IC output via one of IO ports  16 , a binary identification code (ID) uniquely distinguishing IC  12  from all other ICs of the same type. Even though identification circuit  10  is of the same design in every IC in which it is embedded, if the ID has a sufficient number of bits, it is highly likely that the ID it generates when embedded in any on IC will not match the ID it generates when embedded in any other IC. 
   Identification circuit  10  includes an ID generating circuit  20 , a control circuit  22  and a non-volatile memory  24 . Control circuit  22  responds to a first occurrence of a write cue event by obtaining an ID from ID generating circuit  20  and writing it into non-volatile memory  24 . Thereafter, on each occurrence of a read cue event, control circuit  22  reads the ID out of memory  24  and forwards it in serial form to an external circuit via one of IO ports  16 . 
   Within ID generating circuit  20  there are, for each bit of the ID, a cell containing two portions of IC material designed to have similar physical characteristics, such as for example length, width, thickness, doping levels and/or dopant distribution patterns. However, due to random process variations arising during IC fabrication, those physical characteristics can vary slightly, thereby affect the impedance or other electrical characteristics of the two portions of IC. The cell incorporates the two portions of material into a circuit that produces an output signal of a state that varies with the differences in their characteristics caused by the random process variations. The state of each bit of the ID produced by ID generating circuit is a function of the state of the output signal its corresponding cell produces. ID generating circuit  20  therefore produces an ID that is essentially a random number having a value determined by random process variations during the manufacture of IC  12 . When the number of bits in the ID is sufficiently large, the ID of the ID output of IC generating circuit  20  is highly likely to be unique to each individual IC containing ID generating circuit  20 . 
   However although the ID output of generating circuit  20  is likely to be unique, it may not always have the exactly the same value if ID generating circuit  20  were to generate it more than once. For example, temperature may also affect the physical characteristics of the two portions of material in the cell corresponding a bit of the ID. When the differences in physical characteristics of the two portions of material arising out of process variations happen to be very small, then the bit could, for example, be high or low depending on which portion of material happens to be warmer when ID generating circuit  20  generates its output ID. To insure that the ID has the same value each time it provides it as an IC output, control circuit  22  therefore does not directly obtain the ID from ID generating circuit  20  each time it responds to a read cue event. Instead, control circuit  22  obtains an ID from ID generating circuit  20  only once in response to a first occurrence of a write cue event, stores it in non-volatile memory  24 , and thereafter obtains the ID from memory  24  whenever it responds to a read cue event. 
   In the example of  FIG. 1  the read cue event is an application of a particular serial READ code as input to the IC at one of I/O ports  16  which provides the READ code as input to ID control circuit  22 . However, it should be understood that the ID circuit  10  could be designed to respond to other read cue events. For example, system startup (application of power to ID  12 ) could be used as a read cue event. Also depending on its design, ID control circuit  22  can initially obtain an ID from ID generating circuit  20  and store it in non-volatile memory  24  in response to any of several write cue events. For example, ID control circuit  22  could automatically obtain the ID from ID generating circuit  20  the first time control circuit  22  receives power or the first time it detects a read cue event. However, in either case, ID control circuit  22  must thereafter be able to determine upon detecting subsequent occurrences of the write cue event whether it has already written a valid ID into memory  24  so that it does not try to overwrite the ID in memory  24  with a new ID from ID generating circuit  26 . 
   In the example embodiment of the invention depicted in  FIG. 1 , when it first writes an ID into non-volatile memory  24 , control circuit  22  also writes a hard-wired flag code (FLAG) into non-volatile memory  24 . Thus whenever IC  12  detects a write cue event, it first checks non-volatile memory  24  to determine whether it currently stores the FLAG code, and if so, refrains from overwriting the ID already in memory  24 . A typical non-volatile memory will read out data even though it may never have been subject to a data write operation, and for some kinds of non-volatile memory, the data read out prior to a data write operation can be of unpredictable value. To make sure that such a non-volatile memory  24  is unlikely to initially read out a value that happens to match the FLAG data value before control circuit  22  writes the FLAG data into memory  24 , the FLAG data suitably includes a large number of randomly-ordered 1&#39;s and 0&#39;s, preferably as large as the number of bits in the ID itself. 
     FIG. 2  illustrates ID control circuit  22  of  FIG. 1  in more detailed block diagram form. Control circuit  22  includes a decoder  26  for supplying a single bit READ input to a state machine  28  upon receipt of the READ command via one of IO ports  16  of  FIG. 1 . State machine  28  supplies control signals (CONT) to ID generating circuit  20  of  FIG. 1  that tell it to produce its output ID. Depending on how state machine  26  is programmed, it will signal ID generating circuit  20  to generate an ID, for example, upon power up or when the READ bit indicates a READ command has arrived at decoder  26 , but only if an ID has not yet been loaded into memory  24  of  FIG. 1 . A LOADED bit output of a comparator  28  tells state machine  26  when an ID already resides in memory  24 . When the LOADED bit is false, state machine  26  signals ID generating circuit  20  to produce an ID in serial form, and repeatedly pulses a shift-in signal (SI) to shift each bit of the ID into a serial-to-parallel converter  30 . When it has shifted all bits of the ID into converter  30  and the ID appears in parallel form at the output of converter  30 , it transmits a WRITE signal pulse to non-volatile memory  24  telling it to store the ID at the output of converter  30 . Non-volatile memory  24  also responds to the WRITE signal pulse by storing the hard-wired FLAG code. 
   A comparator  32  compares the hard-wired FLAG code to the FLAG data content of memory  24  and sets the LOADED bit input to state machine  28  true when they match. Thereafter, whenever decoder  26  responds to an incoming READ command by stetting the READ bit true while the LOADED bit is true, state machine  28  refrains from writing the ID into non-volatile memory  24 , But is does transmit a LOAD signal to a parallel-to-serial converter  34  telling it to load the ID stored in non-volatile memory  24  and then repeatedly pulses a shift-out signal (SO) telling parallel/serial converter  34  to serially shift each bit of the ID outward via one of IO ports  16  of  FIG. 1 . 
     FIG. 3  illustrates IC  12  including an ID circuit  10  generally similar to that of  FIG. 1  but wherein an initialize command (INIT) received via one of IO ports  16  acts as the write cue event telling ID control circuit  22  when to obtain an ID from ID generating circuit  20  and write it into memory  24 . As illustrated in  FIG. 4 , decoder  26  of the ID control circuit  22  of  FIG. 3  decodes both the INIT and READ commands to produce separate INIT and READ input bits to state machine  28 . ID control circuit  22  of  FIG. 4  need not include circuits for writing FLAG data into memory  24  because state machine  28  does not need to know whether the ID stored in memory  24  is valid when it receives the INIT signal. The INIT command is sent to IC  12  only once, for example by an integrated circuit tester when IC  12  is being tested following IC fabrication. 
     FIG. 5  illustrates an alternative embodiment of ID control circuit  22  wherein a fusible link  50  and a resistor  52  initially couple power (+V) to the LOADED input of state machine  28 . Another resistor  53  couples the LOADED input to ground. Resistor  52  is smaller than resistor  53  so that initially the LOADED input will be high indicating that a valid ID does not yet reside in the non-volatile memory. After state machine  28  subsequently responds to its write cue (e.g., system power up or first READ request) to write an ID into memory  24 , it briefly turns on a transistor  54  coupling fusible link  50  to ground, and transistor  54  draws enough current to blow fusible link  50 . Thereafter, resistor  53  will pull the LOADED input to state machine  28  low to indicate that a valid ID resides in the non-volatile memory and to tell state machine  28  to ignore any subsequently received cue to write an ID to the non-volatile memory. 
     FIG. 6  illustrates an example embodiment of ID generating circuit  20  of  FIG. 1  for producing an N×M bit ID where N and M may be any integers greater than 0. ID generating circuit  20  includes an N×M array of ID cells C 11 –CNM and a measurement circuit  60  controlled by the control data (CONT) produced by state machine  28  of any of  FIGS. 1–5  including a set of row and column select bits R( 1 )–R(N) and C( 1 )–C(M) and a BIT_CLK signal. Each ID cell Cij receives a row select bit R(i) and a column select bit C(j) as input, and when both its row and column select bits are high, ID cell Cij drives a differential signal AH, AL to a state that is a function of random process variation in material within the cell that occurred during the fabrication of that particular ID cell. When state machine  28  responds to the first write cue event, it drives the row and column select bit inputs of each of ID cells C 11 –CNM high in turn so that each ID cell in turn drives the AH,AL signal. Measurement circuit  60 , clocked by the BIT_CLK signal from state machine  20 , generates each successive bit of the ID to a state determined by the state of the output of each successive ID cell C 11 –CNM. 
     FIG. 7  illustrates a suitable implementation of ID cell C 11  of  FIG. 6 . Other ID cells may be similar. ID cell C 11  includes a pair of transistors QA and QB designed to be identical but which will have slightly different characteristics due to random variations in parameters such as channel lengths, channel widths, doping levels and the like occurring during IC fabrication. Row select bit R( 1 ) drives the gate of transistors QA and QB. Transistor QA couples column select bit C( 1 ) to AH and transistor QB couples C( 1 ) to AL. When R( 1 ) and C( 1 ) are high, AH will be higher or lower than AL depending on whether the source-drain path of QA happens to be more or less conductive than that of transistor QB. When ID cell C 11  is controlling the AH, AL signal, measurement circuit  60  produces an output bit of the ID that is a 1 or a 0 determines whether AH is higher than AL. U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,213, issued Dec. 12, 2000 to Lofstrom and incorporated herein by reference, describes a measurement circuit suitable for use as measurement circuit  60 . 
     FIG. 8  illustrates an alternative implementation of ID cell C 11  of  FIG. 6  including a pair of resistors R 1  and R 2 , such as for example polysilicon resistors, designed to be identical but which will have slightly different resistances due to random process variations arising during their fabrication. Resistor R 1  and channels of a pair of transistors Q 1  and Q 3  couple column select bit C 1 ( 1 ) to ground. Resistor R 2  and a channels of a pair of transistors Q 2  and Q 4  also couple C( 1 ) to ground. Row select bit R( 1 ) drives the gates of transistors Q 3  and Q 4 . The drain (AL) of transistor Q 2  drives the gate of transistor Q 1  while the drain (AH) of transistor Q 1  drives the gate of transistor Q 2 . When R 1  is of slightly lower resistance than R 2 , then when state machine  28  drives R( 1 ) and C( 1 ) high, transistor Q 2  will turn on, transistor Q 1  will turn off, AH will go high and AL will go low. Otherwise, when R 1  is of slightly lower resistance than R 1 , then when state machine  28  drives R( 1 ) and C( 1 ) high, transistor Q 1  will turn on, transistor Q 1  will turn off, AL will go high and AH will go low. Measurement circuit  60  then responds to each BIT_CLK pulse by producing a bit of the ID of state depending on whether AH is higher or lower than AL. 
   The foregoing specification and the drawings depict exemplary embodiments of the best mode(s) of practicing the invention, and elements or steps of the depicted best mode(s) exemplify the elements or steps of the invention as recited in the appended claims. However the appended claims are intended to apply to any mode of practicing the invention comprising the combination of elements or steps as described in any one of the claims, including elements or steps that are functional equivalents of the example elements or steps of the exemplary embodiment(s) of the invention depicted in the specification and drawings.