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US 10,949,572 B2Granted
Method for managing the value of the supply voltage for a module of an integrated circuit, and associated integrated circuit
AssigneeSTMicroelectronics (Rousset) SAS
InventorsAlexandre Sarafianos, Thomas Ordas, Yanis Linge, Jimmy Fort
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The supply voltage for a module of an integrated circuit managed to support protection against side channel attacks. Upon startup of the integrated circuit, one action from the following actions is selected in response to a command: supplying the module with the supply voltage having a fixed value that is selected from a plurality of predetermined values, or varying the value of the supply voltage in time with a pulsed signal.
Claims19
A method for managing a supply voltage for a module of an integrated circuit, comprising:
- receiving a command in response to starting the integrated circuit;
- in response to the received command being a first command type, supplying the module with the supply voltage having a fixed voltage value that is selected from among a plurality of predetermined voltage values;
- and
- in response to the received command being a second command type, supplying the module with the supply voltage having a variable voltage value that is changed among and between the plurality of predetermined voltage values in time with a pulsed signal, wherein the pulsed signal is a random pulsed signal.
1 more element
An integrated circuit, comprising:
- a logic module that is supplied with a supply voltage;
- and
- a configurable device for managing the supply voltage that is configured, upon startup of the integrated circuit, to receive a command and:
- in response to the received command being a first command type, supply the logic module with the supply voltage, wherein the supply voltage has a fixed voltage value that is selected from a plurality of predetermined voltage values;
- and
- in response to the received command being a second command type, supply the logic module with the supply voltage, wherein a voltage value of the supply voltage is varied among the plurality of predetermined voltage values in time with a pulsed signal, wherein the pulsed signal is a randomly pulsed signal.
3 more elements
An integrated circuit, comprising:
- a logic module that is supplied with a supply voltage;
- a configurable device for managing the supply voltage that is configured, upon startup of the integrated circuit and in response to a command, to select and to perform one of:
- supplying the logic module with the supply voltage, wherein the supply voltage has a fixed voltage value that is selected from a plurality of predetermined voltage values;
- and
- supplying the logic module with the supply voltage, wherein a voltage value of the supply voltage is varied among the plurality of predetermined voltage values in time with a pulsed signal;
- a voltage regulator configured to deliver the supply voltage;
- wherein the configurable device is further configured:
- in a first configuration, to deliver a control signal to the voltage regulator having a fixed control value, the voltage regulator being configured, upon receiving the control signal, to deliver the supply voltage as having the selected fixed voltage;
- and
- in a second configuration, to deliver the control signal to the voltage regulator having a value that varies among a plurality of values in time with the pulsed signal, the voltage regulator being configured, upon receiving the control signal, to deliver the supply voltage as having the voltage value dependent on the value of the control signal;
- and
- wherein the integrated circuit includes a control unit configured to deliver the command to the configurable device in order to place it in one of the first configuration or second configuration.
9 more elements
An integrated circuit, comprising:
- a control unit configured to generate a first control signal;
- first selection circuitry configured to output a second control signal, the second control signal being either predetermined or random, based upon the first control signal;
- second selection circuitry configured to pass a predetermined one of a plurality of input signals as a third control signal based upon the second control signal being predetermined, and to pass a random one of the plurality of input signals as output based upon the second control signal being random;
- a voltage regulator configured to generate a supply voltage dependent upon the third control signal;
- and
- a logic module powered by the supply voltage.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.