Patents by Inventor Andreas Lentz

Andreas Lentz has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20240393391
    Abstract: A fault detection system includes a state register, an error detection code (EDC) register, logic circuitry, an EDC generator, and an EDC checker. The state and EDC registers store first reference data and first checksum data, respectively. The logic circuitry executes a logic function based on the first reference data to iteratively generate second reference data that is different from the first reference data, and updates the first reference data of the state register with the second reference data of one iteration. The EDC generator iteratively generates second checksum data based on the iteratively generated second reference data and updates the first checksum data of the EDC register with the second checksum data of one iteration. The EDC checker detects a fault in the IC based on the updated first reference data and the updated first checksum data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 27, 2023
    Publication date: November 28, 2024
    Inventors: Jorge Ernesto Perez Chamorro, Vasudev Srinivasan, Andreas Lentz, Jean-Michel Cioranesco
  • Publication number: 20240353888
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a clock signal monitoring unit comprising first, second and third flip-flops, first and second XOR gates and a delay element being functionally interconnected in a specific way. The proposed clock signal monitoring unit can detect both a rising edge glitch and a falling edge glitch. In this way there is provided an area saving device, which does not require any trimming efforts, which can save a lot of space and time. Furthermore, the clock signal monitoring unit can have low electric power consumption because it uses as few as four clocked flip-flops implemented via Register Transfer Logic having an already tuned delay element. This makes it useful for designs that use both edges of the clock for correct operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 19, 2024
    Publication date: October 24, 2024
    Inventors: Andreas Lentz, David Paul Price
  • Patent number: 12047489
    Abstract: An apparatus configured to: receive a digital input signal; receive a processing-direction-signal that can have a forward-value or a backward-value; and provide a digital output signal. The apparatus comprising a processor configured to apply an involutional cryptographic function to the digital input signal by: for a first operation: apply a first step of the involutional cryptographic function to the digital input signal in order to implement a forward calculation to move to the next step in the sequence; and perform a plurality of further operations until the forward calculation of a last step is performed. Each further operation comprises: if the processing-direction-signal has a forward-value: then perform the forward calculation for the current step; or if the processing-direction-signal has a backward-value: then perform a backward calculation for the current step.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2024
    Assignee: NXP B.V.
    Inventors: Jan-Peter Schat, Andreas Lentz, Fabrice Poulard
  • Patent number: 11947672
    Abstract: A voltage glitch detector includes a ring oscillator, a plurality of counters, a combined result circuit, and a result evaluation circuit. The ring oscillator includes a plurality of series-connected stages. An output of a last stage of the ring oscillator is coupled to an input of a first stage of the ring oscillator. Each counter of the plurality of counters has an input coupled to a node located between two stages of the plurality of series-connected stages. The combined result circuit is coupled to each of the plurality of counters. The combined result circuit combines the count values received from each counter of the plurality of counters to provide a combined result. The result evaluation circuit is coupled to compare the combined result with a reference value to determine when a voltage glitch is detected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2024
    Assignee: NXP B.V.
    Inventors: Andreas Bernardus Maria Jansman, Andreas Lentz
  • Patent number: 11689206
    Abstract: A method for clock frequency monitoring for a Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) based design includes determining a present operating point of an oscillator of the PLL based design, wherein the oscillator generates a present frequency in response to the present operating point. The present operating point of the oscillator is compared to a comparison range defined by a plurality of reference operating points, wherein the oscillator generates a nominal reference frequency in response to a nominal one of the plurality of reference operating points and the comparison range is further defined by a manufacturing process range, an operating voltage range and an operating temperature range. An action is performed in response to the present operating point being outside of the comparison range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2023
    Assignee: NXP B.V.
    Inventors: Ulrich Moehlmann, Andreas Lentz
  • Patent number: 11609600
    Abstract: A glitch detector includes a metastability detector circuit, a reference storage circuit, and a pattern comparison circuit. The metastability detector circuit is configured to generate state signals at each cycle of the clock signal. The reference storage circuit is configured to store a logic state of each state signal based on a delayed version of the clock signal, and generate reference signals. A logic state of each reference signal is equal to a logic state of a corresponding state signal generated during a previous cycle of the clock signal. The pattern comparison circuit is configured to receive the state signals generated during a current cycle of the clock signal, the reference signals, and first and second values, and generate clock and voltage glitch signals based on first and second patterns that are associated with the state signals generated during the current cycle and the reference signals, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: NXP USA, Inc.
    Inventors: Rohit Kumar Sinha, Garima Sharda, Vandana Sapra, Amol Agarwal, Stefan Doll, Andreas Lentz
  • Publication number: 20220382322
    Abstract: A glitch detector includes a metastability detector circuit, a reference storage circuit, and a pattern comparison circuit. The metastability detector circuit is configured to generate state signals at each cycle of the clock signal. The reference storage circuit is configured to store a logic state of each state signal based on a delayed version of the clock signal, and generate reference signals. A logic state of each reference signal is equal to a logic state of a corresponding state signal generated during a previous cycle of the clock signal. The pattern comparison circuit is configured to receive the state signals generated during a current cycle of the clock signal, the reference signals, and first and second values, and generate clock and voltage glitch signals based on first and second patterns that are associated with the state signals generated during the current cycle and the reference signals, respectively.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 22, 2022
    Publication date: December 1, 2022
    Inventors: Rohit Kumar Sinha, Garima Sharda, Vandana Sapra, Amol Agarwal, Stefan Doll, Andreas Lentz
  • Patent number: 11509461
    Abstract: A method for securing an integrated circuit chip includes obtaining a first value from a first storage area in the chip, obtaining a second value from a second storage area in the chip, generating a third value based on the first value and the second value, and converting a first opcode command obfuscated as a second opcode command into a non-obfuscated form of the first opcode command based on the third value. The first value corresponds to a physically unclonable function (PUF) of the chip. The second value is a key including information indicating a type of obfuscation performed to obfuscate the first opcode command as the second opcode command. The third value may be an inversion flag indicating a type of obfuscation performed to obfuscate the first opcode command as the second opcode command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: NXP B.V.
    Inventors: Jan-Peter Schat, Fabrice Poulard, Andreas Lentz
  • Patent number: 11474130
    Abstract: An integrated circuit for hardware security comprises a voltage glitch detection processing system comprising an oscillator circuit that generates and outputs a local oscillator clock which is a function of a supply voltage; a counter clocked by the oscillator circuit to generate at least one count value; and a capture section that synchronizes the at least one count value into a system clock domain for detecting a voltage glitch in the supply voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: NXP B.V.
    Inventors: Andreas Lentz, Andreas Bernardus Maria Jansman
  • Publication number: 20220284099
    Abstract: A voltage glitch detector includes a ring oscillator, a plurality of counters, a combined result circuit, and a result evaluation circuit. The ring oscillator includes a plurality of series-connected stages. An output of a last stage of the ring oscillator is coupled to an input of a first stage of the ring oscillator. Each counter of the plurality of counters has an input coupled to a node located between two stages of the plurality of series-connected stages. The combined result circuit is coupled to each of the plurality of counters. The combined result circuit combines the count values received from each counter of the plurality of counters to provide a combined result. The result evaluation circuit is coupled to compare the combined result with a reference value to determine when a voltage glitch is detected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 2, 2021
    Publication date: September 8, 2022
    Inventors: Andreas Bernardus Maria JANSMAN, Andreas Lentz
  • Patent number: 11429142
    Abstract: A glitch detector includes a metastability detector circuit, a reference storage circuit, and a pattern comparison circuit. The metastability detector circuit is configured to generate state signals at each cycle of the clock signal. The reference storage circuit is configured to store a logic state of each state signal based on a delayed version of the clock signal, and generate reference signals. A logic state of each reference signal is equal to a logic state of a corresponding state signal generated during a previous cycle of the clock signal. The pattern comparison circuit is configured to receive the state signals generated during a current cycle of the clock signal, the reference signals, and first and second values, and generate clock and voltage glitch signals based on first and second patterns that are associated with the state signals generated during the current cycle and the reference signals, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Assignee: NXP USA, Inc.
    Inventors: Rohit Kumar Sinha, Garima Sharda, Vandana Sapra, Amol Agarwal, Stefan Doll, Andreas Lentz
  • Publication number: 20220197332
    Abstract: A glitch detector includes a metastability detector circuit, a reference storage circuit, and a pattern comparison circuit. The metastability detector circuit is configured to generate state signals at each cycle of the clock signal. The reference storage circuit is configured to store a logic state of each state signal based on a delayed version of the clock signal, and generate reference signals. A logic state of each reference signal is equal to a logic state of a corresponding state signal generated during a previous cycle of the clock signal. The pattern comparison circuit is configured to receive the state signals generated during a current cycle of the clock signal, the reference signals, and first and second values, and generate clock and voltage glitch signals based on first and second patterns that are associated with the state signals generated during the current cycle and the reference signals, respectively.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2020
    Publication date: June 23, 2022
    Inventors: Rohit Kumar Sinha, Garima Sharda, Vandana Sapra, Amol Agarwal, Stefan Doll, Andreas Lentz
  • Patent number: 11355457
    Abstract: A fully digital method and apparatus are provided for detecting glitches on a monitored line by providing a toggle signal to an initial delay circuit and a plurality of delay elements formed with standard logic cells so that logic values from the delay elements are captured in a corresponding plurality of clocked capture flops to provide a digitized representation of a delay value during a sampling period which is converted to a numerical measurement result which is evaluated against a reference value to generate an output error signal if a difference between the numerical measurement result and reference value exceeds a programmable margin, where the initial delay circuit is configured with a trim setting to impose an initial delay to compensate for process variations and where the reference value is adapted over a plurality of sampling periods to compensate for temperature effects on the numerical measurement result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: NXP B.V.
    Inventors: Andreas Lentz, Stefan Heyse, Martin Heinrich Butkus, Oliver Alexander Schmidt
  • Publication number: 20220158820
    Abstract: An apparatus configured to: receive a digital input signal; receive a processing-direction-signal that can have a forward-value or a backward-value; and provide a digital output signal. The apparatus comprising a processor configured to apply an involutional cryptographic function to the digital input signal by: for a first operation: apply a first step of the involutional cryptographic function to the digital input signal in order to implement a forward calculation to move to the next step in the sequence; and perform a plurality of further operations until the forward calculation of a last step is performed. Each further operation comprises: if the processing-direction-signal has a forward-value: then perform the forward calculation for the current step; or if the processing-direction-signal has a backward-value: then perform a backward calculation for the current step.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 18, 2021
    Publication date: May 19, 2022
    Inventors: Jan-Peter Schat, Andreas Lentz, Fabrice Poulard
  • Publication number: 20210396789
    Abstract: An integrated circuit for hardware security comprises a voltage glitch detection processing system comprising an oscillator circuit that generates and outputs a local oscillator clock which is a function of a supply voltage; a counter clocked by the oscillator circuit to generate at least one count value; and a capture section that synchronizes the at least one count value into a system clock domain for detecting a voltage glitch in the supply voltage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2020
    Publication date: December 23, 2021
    Inventors: Andreas Lentz, Andreas Bernardus Maria Jansman
  • Publication number: 20210351922
    Abstract: A method for securing an integrated circuit chip includes obtaining a first value from a first storage area in the chip, obtaining a second value from a second storage area in the chip, generating a third value based on the first value and the second value, and converting a first opcode command obfuscated as a second opcode command into a non-obfuscated form of the first opcode command based on the third value. The first value corresponds to a physically unclonable function (PUF) of the chip. The second value is a key including information indicating a type of obfuscation performed to obfuscate the first opcode command as the second opcode command. The third value may be an inversion flag indicating a type of obfuscation performed to obfuscate the first opcode command as the second opcode command.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 14, 2021
    Publication date: November 11, 2021
    Inventors: Jan-Peter Schat, Fabrice Poulard, Andreas Lentz
  • Publication number: 20200402929
    Abstract: A fully digital method and apparatus are provided for detecting glitches on a monitored line by providing a toggle signal to an initial delay circuit and a plurality of delay elements formed with standard logic cells so that logic values from the delay elements are captured in a corresponding plurality of clocked capture flops to provide a digitized representation of a delay value during a sampling period which is converted to a numerical measurement result which is evaluated against a reference value to generate an output error signal if a difference between the numerical measurement result and reference value exceeds a programmable margin, where the initial delay circuit is configured with a trim setting to impose an initial delay to compensate for process variations and where the reference value is adapted over a plurality of sampling periods to compensate for temperature effects on the numerical measurement result.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 19, 2019
    Publication date: December 24, 2020
    Applicant: NXP B.V.
    Inventors: Andreas Lentz, Stefan Heyse, Martin Heinrich Butkus, Oliver Alexander Schmidt