Security-protection of a wafer of electronic circuits
AssigneeSTMicroelectronics (Rousset) SAS
InventorsFrancois Tailliet, Marc Battista, Luc Wuidart
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process is provided for fabricating a wafer including a plurality of chips separated by scribe lines. The method includes locking at least one chip on the wafer using a secret key, and writing the secret key into at least one memory present on the wafer.
Claims31
A method for fabricating a semiconductor wafer comprising:
- forming a plurality of integrated circuit chips on the semiconductor wafer separated by scribe lines, and forming at least one memory on the semiconductor wafer;
- locking at least one of the integrated circuit chips based upon at least one secret key;
- and
- writing the at least one secret key into the at least one memory.
An apparatus for fabricating semiconductor devices comprising:
- a fabrication device for forming a plurality of integrated circuit chips on a semiconductor wafer separated by scribe lines, and forming at least one memory on the semiconductor wafer;
- and
- a reader device for
- locking at least one of said integrated circuit chips based upon at least one secret key;
- and
- writing the at least one secret key into the at least one memory.
An apparatus for processing integrated circuit devices from a semiconductor wafer comprising a plurality of integrated circuit chips separated by scribe lines and at least one memory thereon, at least one of the integrated circuit chips being locked based upon at least one secret key, and the at least one secret key being stored in the memory, the apparatus comprising:
- a reader device for unlocking the at least one integrated circuit chip based upon the at least one secret key stored in the memory;
- and
- a dicing device for dicing the integrated circuit chips apart from one another after unlocking by said reader device.
An electronic device comprising:
- a semiconductor wafer;
- a plurality of integrated circuit chips on said semiconductor wafer and separated by scribe lines;
- and
- at least one memory on said semiconductor wafer;
- wherein at least one of the integrated circuit chips is locked based upon at least one secret key, and wherein the at least one secret key is stored in the at least one memory.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.