Semiconductor device including enhanced variability

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9166588-B2
Application number	US-201414158917-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 20, 2014
Priority date	Jan 20, 2014
Publication date	Oct 20, 2015
Grant date	Oct 20, 2015

Abstract

A Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, and a well formed in the semiconductor substrate. The well includes a first region having a first concentration of ions, and at least one second region having a second concentration that is less than the first concentration. First and second FETs are formed on the well. The first and second FETs have a voltage threshold mismatch with respect to one another based on the first region and the at least one second region.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of fabricating a Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) semiconductor device, the method comprising:
forming a well in a semiconductor substrate; and
delivering a first portion of random implantation ions into a first portion of the well to form a first region while inhibiting a second portion of the random implantation ions from reaching a second portion of the well to form at least one second region such that the first region has a greater concentration of the random implantation ions than the second region.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising forming first and second FETs on the well such that a combination of the first region and the at least one second region alters a first voltage threshold of the first FET and a second voltage threshold of the second FET to be different.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising, before the step of delivering the first portion and inhibiting the second portion of random implantation ions, depositing a particle photoresist layer to cover the well, the particle photoresist layer including a random arrangement of barrier particles that, when being in the path of the random implantation ions, inhibits the random implantation ions from reaching the well.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the particle photoresist layer comprises a polymer photoresist material containing the barrier particles.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the forming the well comprises:
before delivering the first portion of random implantation ions and before inhibiting the second portion of random implantation ions, forming a well-implant photoresist on an upper surface of the semiconductor substrate;
patterning the photoresist layer to create a void that exposes a portion of the semiconductor substrate; and
performing well implantation to form the well in the exposed portion of the semiconductor substrate.

6. The method of 5 , further comprising:
removing the particle photoresist layer and the photoresist layer to expose the first regions and the second regions.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the forming the first and second FETs further comprises:
forming a first source/drain element and a first gate element corresponding to the first FET;
forming a second source/drain element and a second gate element corresponding to the second FET; and
forming a common source/drain element on the well, the common source/drain element shared by each of the first and second FETs.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the barrier particles are particles of silicon.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising generating a plurality of random numerical bits indicating a random voltage threshold mismatch between the first and second FETs, the numerical bits based on a difference between a first drain voltage or a drain current and a second drain voltage or a drain current when both FETs have an identical gate voltage.

10. A Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) semiconductor device comprising:
a semiconductor substrate;
a well formed in the semiconductor substrate, the well including a first region having a first concentration of random implantation ions and at least one second region having a second concentration of the random implantation ions that is less than the first concentration; and
first and second FETs formed on the well, the first and second FETs having a voltage threshold mismatch with respect to one another based on the first region and the at least one second region.

11. The PUF semiconductor device of claim 10 , wherein the first region encompasses a plurality of second regions formed therein.

12. The PUF semiconductor device of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of second regions are smaller than the first region and are formed at random locations in the first region.

13. The PUF semiconductor device of claim 12 , wherein the first region contains a greater concentration of the random implantation ions than the plurality of second regions.

14. The PUF semiconductor device of claim 13 wherein the substrate is formed from silicon (Si) and the random implantation ions are one of n-type ions or p-type ions.

15. The PUF semiconductor device of claim 14 , wherein a first voltage threshold of the first FET is based on a first portion of the well including a first combination of first and second regions, and wherein a second voltage threshold of the second FET is based on a second portion of the well including a second combination of first and second regions.

16. The PUF semiconductor device of claim 15 , further comprising:
a first source/drain element and a first gate element corresponding to the first FET;
a second source/drain element and a second gate element corresponding to the second FET; and
a common source element on the well, the common source element shared by each of the first and second FETs.

17. The PUF semiconductor device of claim 16 , wherein a drain voltage differential between the first and second FETs is determined in response to delivering a common voltage to the first and second gate elements.

18. The PUF semiconductor device of claim 17 , a plurality of random numerical bits indicating a random voltage threshold mismatch between the first and second FETs is based on the drain voltage differential.

19. A Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) semiconductor device comprising:
a semiconductor substrate having at least one active implantation portion formed therein, the at least one active implantation portion including a first region having a first concentration of random implantation ions and at least one second region having a second concentration of random implantation ions being less than the first concentration;
a well formed in the active implantation portion; and
first and second FETs formed on the active implantation portion, the first and second FETs having a voltage threshold mismatch with respect to one another based on the first region and the at least one second region.

20. The PUF semiconductor device of claim 19 , wherein the first region encompasses a plurality of second regions formed at random locations therein.

Assignees

• IBM
• Globalfoundires Inc

Inventors

• Feng Kai D
• Li Wai-Kin
• Wang Ping-Chuan
• Yang Zhijian J

Classifications

• H10P30/204

  into Group IV semiconductors · CPC title

• H10P30/21

  of electrically active species · CPC title

• H10W46/403

  for non-wireless electrical read out · CPC title

• H10W46/106

  digital information, e.g. bar codes · CPC title

• H10W46/00

  Marks applied to devices, e.g. for alignment or identification · CPC title