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US 10,481,871 B2Granted
Semiconductor-junction-derived random number generation with triggering mechanism
AssigneeThe Government of the United States, as represented by the Secretary of the Army
InventorsJohn Suarez, Moses Mingle
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Various embodiments are described that relate to random number generation. When a desire arises for a random number a circuit can be completed with a reverse biased semiconductor-junction element. When the circuit is completed an analog voltage spike can be produced that is random due to properties of the reverse biased semiconductor-junction element. This analog voltage spike can be converted into a digital value that serves as the random number. The digital value can be outputted and used as the random number.
Claims20
A system, comprising:
- a measurement component that measures a voltage for an electrical hardware element;
- a generation component that generates a number based on the voltage;
- a monitor component that monitors an event external to a circuit to produce a monitor result, the circuit comprises the electrical hardware element;
- an analysis component that analyzes the monitor result to produce an analysis result;
- and
- a causation component that causes the voltage to be available in response to the analysis result being that the voltage should be available,
- where the number is outputted to a computer structure and
- where the measurement component, the generation component, or a combination thereof is implemented, at least in part, by way of hardware.
5 more elements
A system, comprising:
- a trigger component configured to trigger a circuit to produce a voltage spike in response to a request for a randomly-generated number;
- a spike component configured to read the voltage spike;
- an analog to digital converter configured to convert the voltage spike from an analog input to a floating point number output;
- and
- a number component configured to cause an output of the floating point number output as the randomly-generated number.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.