If someone sells you a luxury handbag from Paris, France, but it turns out be a forgery from Paris, Texas, the counterfeit item might cost you a thousand bucks and the crook could wind up in jail. But if a counterfeit electronic device gets installed in a car, it could cost passengers or the driver their lives.
Without new security measures, the interconnected wireless technologies, digital electronics and micromechanical electronic systems that make up the Internet of Things are vulnerable to forgeries and tampering that could cause entire telecommunication networks to fail. In 2017, sales of counterfeit products of all sorts — from electronics to pharmaceuticals — amounted to an estimated $1.2 trillion worldwide.
To help prevent counterfeit computer chips and other electronic devices from flooding the market, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a method that could electronically authenticate products before they leave the factory.
Implanting Atoms to Create a Unique Electrical ID
To detect the presence of forged components in a system, you need a way of uniquely identifying and authenticating these components throughout the supply chain. To achieve this, NIST researchers have developed a new low-cost process for creating unique and non-duplicable ID tags by altering the electronic structure of silicon. These tags could be embedded into a device during the manufacturing process and easily authenticated by anyone receiving the device, ensuring a secure supply chain for components in critical systems. Credit: Sean Kelley/NIST
The scientists employed a well-known technique called doping, in which small clusters of “foreign” atoms of a different element from those in the device to be labeled are implanted just beneath the surface. The implanted atoms alter the electrica ..
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