METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ENHANCING SECURITY OF INTEGRATED CIRCUITS

摘要

PURPOSE: An apparatus and method for improving security of an IC are provided to prevent an illegal copy of the IC by only sharing encrypted random number and a key pair between designers of the IC. CONSTITUTION: An external signal receiver(710) receives a state command signal of the IC from a designer. The external signal receiver decides the state of a lock requesting signal of the state command signal or an activation requesting signal. A password processing unit(740) generates the security key encrypted in the lock requesting signal state of the status command signal. The password processing unit transfers the encrypted security key to the designer of the IC. An activation decision unit(760) is transferred the encrypted security key from the designer of the IC in the activation requesting signal state of the state command signal. The activation decision unit decides the activation state of the IC according to a comparison result of the pre-stored security key and the encrypted security key.