UNDISCOVERABLE PHYSICAL CHIP IDENTIFICATION

摘要

Methods and circuits for undiscoverable physical chip identification are disclosed. Embodiments of the present invention provide an intrinsic bit element that comprises two transistors. The two transistors form a pair in which one transistor has a wide variability in threshold voltage and the other transistor has a narrow variability in threshold voltage. The wide variability is achieved by making a transistor with a smaller width and length than the other transistor in the pair. The variation of the threshold voltage of the wide variability transistor means that in the case of copies of intrinsic bit elements being made, some of the "copied" wide variability transistors will have significantly different threshold voltages, causing some of the intrinsic bit elements of a copied chip to read differently than in the original chip from which they were copied.