Tamper resistant packaging for information protection in electronic circuitry

A tamper resistant apparatus for protecting information stored in an electronic circuit comprising:

• an enclosure being part of and substantially surrounding a region containing said electric circuit;
• energy distribution means including a plurality of paths, each supporting energy distribution, means for changing the condition of the region to any one of a plurality of different conditions by selecting certain of said paths to carry energy and selecting others of the paths not to carry energy;
• means for sensing predictable results for said conditions assumed by said enclsoure when there is no intrusion into said enclosure, and detecting intrusion into said enclosure when results other than said predictable results are sensed, wherein said means for sensing predictable results comprises means for sensing the presence and absence of energy on said paths and where an intrusion is detected based on the presence and absence of energy on said paths;
• and
• impairing means for impairing said information contained in said electronic circuit when intrusion is detected by said sensing means.

A tamper resistant apparatus for detecting intrusion into a region comprising:

• (a) means for generating a time sequence of drive signals;
• (b) a plurality of sensing elements surrounding the region, the sensing elements responsive to a current one of said drive signals for assuming, in absence of intrusion, a particular state in conformity with the current one of the drive signals;
• (c) means for comparing an actual pattern of states of said sensing elements with a pattern of states predicted from the currant drive signal;
• and
• (d) means for detecting intrusion into said region when the actual pattern of states does not match the predicted pattern of states.