Semiconductor integrated circuit device and IC card
AssigneeHitachi, Ltd.
InventorsKazuki Watanabe, Ryouzou Yoshino, Kenji Nagai, Tatsuya Nishihara
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Abstract
A semiconductor integrated circuit device is provided with an IC chip so as to prevent its circuits from malfunction when the IC chip is cracked. To detect chip cracks, a resistor R01 is disposed at the outer periphery of the area in which one wants to detect the chip crack. If the chip is cracked and the resistance value of the resistor R01 is changed, the resistance change is detected, thereby controlling internal signals such as the power on reset signal and stopping the whole operation of the circuit device so as to prevent the circuits from malfunction. Thus, the system security can also be improved.
Claims12
A semiconductor integrated circuit device comprising:
- a logic circuit;
- a current source;
- a resistor;
- and
- a chip crack detector;
- wherein said logic circuit, said current source, said resistor, and said chip crack detector are formed on a semiconductor chip;
- said current source and said resistor are connected serially between a first potential and a second potential;
- and
- said chip crack detector detects a crack in said semiconductor chip, thereby preventing said logic circuit operation, according to a third potential of a first coupling node between said current source and said resistor, said first coupling node being connected to an input terminal of said chip crack detector.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.