Patent ID: 7281667

Claim:
A tamper resistant, integrated circuit (IC) module, comprising: a ceramic-based chip carrier; one or more integrated circuit chips attached to said chip carrier; a cap structure attached to said chip carrier, and covering said one or more integrated circuit chips; and a conductive grid structure formed in said chip carrier and said cap structure, said conductive structure having a plurality of meandering lines disposed in an x-direction, a y-direction, and a z-direction; wherein said conductive grid structure is configured so as to detect an attempt to penetrate the IC module; wherein meandering lines formed on one wiring level of said chip carrier are disposed in an offset arrangement with respect to meandering lines formed on an adjacent wiring level of said chip carrier; and wherein said plurality of meandering lines in said x-direction and said y-direction are formed at a selected linewidth and pitch therebetween, such that said offset arrangement results in an effective pitch in said z-direction equal to or less than said selected linewidth.