Integrated circuit to inhibit reverse engineering

摘要

An integrated circuit is protected from reverse engineering by providing conducting and non-conducting channels which appear identical. Active regions 22, 26 are connected by channel areas 23, 25 and pseudo channel-block structure 29 all of the same conductivity type. A layer of metal silicide is disposed over the active regions 22, 26 and channel areas 23, 25 but not the pseudo channel block structure 29. When reverse engineering techniques are applied edge artefacts 28 of the silicide covering a pseudo channel-blocked conducting channel appear identical to those of a non-conducting channel-blocked channel (figure 1B).