Circuit obfuscation using differing dielectric constants

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10499491-B2
Application number	US-201615364394-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 30, 2016
Priority date	Jul 16, 2008
Publication date	Dec 3, 2019
Grant date	Dec 3, 2019

Abstract

An obfuscated radio frequency circuit may be manufactured to include a metallization layer, and a dielectric layer under the metallization layer. The dielectric layer may be made up of a plurality of dielectric substrates having different dielectric constants to obfuscate functions of the circuit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of manufacturing a radio frequency circuit comprising:
determining which functions of the radio frequency circuit are required;
forming a plurality of dielectric substrates in a first dielectric layer, each of the plurality of dielectric substrates comprising a same width, having varying dielectric constants;
forming a first metallization layer extending over the plurality of dielectric substrates in the first dielectric layer, wherein the dielectric constants of the plurality of dielectric substrates are selected such that the first metallization layer is functionally equivalent to a second metallization layer with varying widths that extends over a second dielectric layer with a constant dielectric constant.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein forming the plurality of dielectric substrates further comprises manufacturing the plurality of dielectric substrates to comprise different lengths.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein forming the plurality of dielectric substrates further comprises manufacturing the plurality of dielectric substrates to comprise a same height, with at least two of the plurality of dielectric substrates comprising different lengths.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein forming the first metallization layer further comprises manufacturing the first metallization layer to have a substantially uniform width along an entire length of the first metallization layer.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein forming the first metallization layer further comprises manufacturing the first metallization layer to have varying width portions along a length of the first metallization layer.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein forming the first metallization layer further comprises manufacturing a plurality of the varying width portions to have varying lengths.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising manufacturing the radio frequency circuit to comprise at least one of a filter, a matching network, a LC network, a coupler, a hybrid, a power divider, a termination, or an antenna element that include the first metallization layer and the plurality of dielectric substrates.

Assignees

• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Worl Robert Tilman

Classifications

• H05K1/024 Primary

  Dielectric details, e.g. changing the dielectric material around a transmission line · CPC title

• H01P1/00

  Auxiliary devices (coupling devices of the waveguide type H01P5/00) · CPC title

• H05K3/10

  in which conductive material is applied to the insulating support in such a manner as to form the desired conductive pattern · CPC title

• H05K2201/0187

  with regions of different dielectrics in the same layer, e.g. in a printed capacitor for locally changing the dielectric properties · CPC title

• H05K1/0306

  Inorganic insulating substrates, e.g. ceramic, glass · CPC title