Integrated circuit package that measures amount of internal precious material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11380630-B2
Application number	US-202016871162-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 11, 2020
Priority date	May 11, 2020
Publication date	Jul 5, 2022
Grant date	Jul 5, 2022

Abstract

Integrated circuit package (ICP) with: (i) stored information pertaining to an amount and/or value of precious material present in the ICP; and (ii) sensor for detecting an amount of precious material present in the ICP. In some embodiments the ICP is embedded in a smart card for use with a smart card reader system that can communicate data to and/or from the ICP.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An integrated circuit package product (ICPP) comprising an integrated circuit package (ICP) that includes:
integrated circuitry;
a set of substrate layer(s);
a precious material reservoir made of one, or more, precious material(s); and
a tamper detection device;
wherein:
the integrated circuitry is located on and/or between substrate layers of the set of substrate layers;
the precious material reservoir is at least partially embedded in the set of substrate layer(s); and
the tamper detection device is structured, located, connected and/or programmed to provide an indication of tampering on condition that the physical integrity of the ICPP has been compromised.

2. The ICPP of claim 1 further comprising:
a smart card, with the ICP being embedded in the smart card; and
wherein the ICP is in the form of a smart card chip.

3. The ICPP of claim 1 wherein the precious material reservoir is non-unitary and includes at least two discrete portions.

4. The ICPP of claim 1 wherein the precious material reservoir includes a precious metal.

5. The ICPP of claim 4 wherein the precious metal is gold.

6. The ICPP of claim 1 wherein the tamper detection device is further structured to provide an indication of tampering by providing an indication of an amount of precious material(s) in the precious material reservoir.

7. The ICPP of claim 6 wherein the tamper detection device is further structured, located, connected and/or programmed to determine at least one of the following electrical characteristics of the precious material reservoir: capacitance, resistivity, resistance, conductivity and/or inductance.

8. The ICPP of claim 1 wherein the tamper detection device is further structured to provide an indication of tampering by providing an indication of a geometry and/or shape of precious material(s) in the precious material reservoir.

9. The ICPP of claim 8 wherein the tamper detection device is further structured, located, connected and/or programmed to determine at least one of the following electrical characteristics of the precious material reservoir: capacitance, resistivity, resistance, conductivity and/or inductance.

10. The ICPP of claim 1 wherein the tamper detection device includes a set of conductive path(s) which respectively extend around at least a portion of the precious material reservoir so that a break in a path of the set of conductive path(s) indicates tampering.

11. The ICPP of claim 10 wherein the set of conductive path(s) include: a plurality of electrically conductive traces and a plurality of electrically conductive vias.

12. The ICPP of claim 1 wherein the integrated circuitry includes a data storage element that has stored reservoir data indicating a mass of the precious material reservoir as determined at a time of manufacture of the ICPP.

13. The ICPP of claim 1 wherein the integrated circuitry includes a data storage element that has stored a set of electrical characteristic value(s) characterizing the precious material reservoir at the time of manufacture of the ICPP.

14. The ICPP of claim 13 wherein the set of electrical characteristic value(s) include at least one of the following types of electrical characteristic values: capacitance, resistivity, resistance, conductivity, inductance and/or piezoelectric related.

15. An integrated circuit package product (ICPP) comprising an integrated circuit package (ICP) that includes:
integrated circuitry;
a set of substrate layer(s); and
a precious material reservoir made of one, or more, precious material(s);
wherein:
the integrated circuitry is located on and/or between substrate layers of the set of substrate layers;
the precious material reservoir is at least partially embedded in the set of substrate layer(s); and
the integrated circuitry includes a data storage element that has stored reservoir data indicating a mass of the precious material reservoir as determined at a time of manufacture of the ICPP.

16. The ICPP of claim 15 further comprising:
a smart card, with the ICP being embedded in the smart card; and
wherein the ICP is in the form of a smart card chip.

17. The ICPP of claim 15 wherein the precious material reservoir includes a precious metal.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Fuka Louis Thomas
• Nonnenkamp Robert John
• Brown Charles Patrick

Classifications

• H10W42/40 Primary

  protecting against tampering, e.g. unauthorised inspection or reverse engineering · CPC title

• H10D89/00

  Aspects of integrated devices not covered by groups H10D84/00 - H10D88/00 · CPC title

• G01N27/028

  Circuits therefor (measuring impedance per se G01R27/02) · CPC title

• G07F7/082

  Features insuring the integrity of the data on or in the card · CPC title

• G06Q20/341

  Active cards, i.e. cards including their own processing means, e.g. including an IC or chip · CPC title