Authentication value for a fluid ejection device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10112425-B2
Application number	US-201715822325-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 27, 2017
Priority date	Oct 15, 2013
Publication date	Oct 30, 2018
Grant date	Oct 30, 2018

Abstract

A fluid ejection device includes a plurality of analog devices, and a storage element storing an authentication value based on electrical characteristics of a subset of the plurality of analog devices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A fluid ejection device, comprising:
a plurality of analog devices; and
a storage element storing an authentication value based on electrical characteristics of a subset of the plurality of analog devices, wherein the authentication value stored in the storage element is encrypted.

2. The fluid ejection device of claim 1 , wherein the electrical characteristics of the subset of the plurality of analog devices are measurable by a fluid ejection system, and wherein the authentication value is usable by the fluid ejection system to verify an authenticity of the fluid ejection device based on measured values of the subset of the plurality of analog devices.

3. The fluid ejection device of claim 1 , wherein the storage element further stores information that indicates the subset of the plurality of analog devices on which the authentication value is based.

4. The fluid ejection device of claim 1 , further comprising an electrical connection to connect to a host device, the electrical connection being connected to the storage element to communicate the authentication value to the host device, and being connected to the subset of the plurality of analog devices to facilitate measuring of the electrical characteristics of the subset of the plurality of analog devices by the host device.

5. The fluid ejection device of claim 4 , further comprising an analog-to-digital converter coupled between the electrical connection and the subset of the plurality of analog devices to facilitate measuring the electrical characteristics of the subset of the plurality of analog devices.

6. The fluid ejection device of claim 1 , wherein the authentication value comprises an encrypted version of a comparison value, the comparison value includes a plurality of bits, a first bit of the plurality of bits based on electrical characteristics of a first subset of analog devices, and a second bit of the plurality of bits based on electrical characteristics of a second subset of analog devices.

7. The fluid ejection device of claim 1 , wherein the analog devices comprise resistors, and the electrical characteristics include resistances of the resistors.

8. The fluid ejection device of claim 1 , further comprising a connector to communicate the authentication value to a fluid dispensing system as part of an authentication process performed by the fluid dispensing system to authenticate the fluid ejection device based on the authentication value.

9. A die comprising:
a plurality of nozzles and a plurality of corresponding firing elements; and
a storage element storing an authentication value based on electrical characteristics of a subset of the firing elements, and information that indicates which firing elements were measured for a computation of the authentication value.

10. The die of claim 9 , further comprising an analog-to-digital converter to convert measured electrical characteristics of the subset of the firing elements to digital values to facilitate measurement by a host device.

11. The die of claim 9 , further comprising a connector to communicate the authentication value to a fluid dispensing system as part of authenticating the die by the fluid dispensing system.

12. A die comprising:
a plurality of analog devices; and
a storage element storing an authentication value based on electrical characteristics of a subset of the plurality of analog devices, wherein the authentication value is encrypted.

13. The die of claim 12 , wherein encryption to provide the authentication value includes a conversion from a tristate number to a base-2 number.

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Development Co

Inventors

• Anderson Daryl E
• Rice Huston W
• Martin Eric T

Classifications

• B41J2/04535

  involving calculation of drop size, weight or volume · CPC title

• B41J2/04565 Primary

  detecting heater resistance · CPC title

• B41J2/0458

  controlling heads based on heating elements forming bubbles · CPC title

• B41J29/38 Primary

  Drives, motors, controls or automatic cut-off devices for the entire printing mechanism · CPC title

• B41J2/04586

  controlling heads of a type not covered by groups B41J2/04575 - B41J2/04585, or of an undefined type · CPC title