CODE GENERATING APPARATUS AND ONE TIME PROGRAMMING BLOCK
The invention provides a code generating apparatus and an OTP memory block. The code generating apparatus of present disclosure includes a plurality of first one time programming (OTP) memory cells, a reference signal provider and a sense amplifier. The first OTP memory cells are coupled to a first bit line. The reference signal provider provides a reference signal. Wherein, at least one of the first OTP memory cells provides a read current to the first bit line, and the sense amplifier compares the read current and the reference signal to generate an output code. A current value of the reference signal is set within a range, and the range is set by the bit current corresponding to a maximum bit count, such as that the output code is determined by a manufacturing variation of the at least one first OTP memory cell.
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This application is a divisional application of and claims the priority benefit of U.S. application Ser. no. 15/166,277, filed on May 27, 2016, now allowed. The prior application Ser. no. 15/166,277 claims the priority benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. no. 62/206,828, filed on Aug. 18, 2015. The entirety of each of the above-mentioned patent applications is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
BACKGROUND Field of the InventionThe invention relates to a code generating apparatus. Particularly, the invention relates to the code generating apparatus by using a plurality of one time programming (OTP) memory cells.
Description of Related ArtIn recently, electronic apparatuses are important tools of people's life. For some purposes, an electronic apparatus needs to provide a specified code, such as an identification code. The identification code must be exactly identical whenever an identification creation is requested, and can be used for encoding and/or decoding operations, like PUF (physical unclonable function) in security disclosure. Sometimes, the electronic apparatus needs one or more random number code(s) for application. That is, how to provide the identification code and/or the random number code(s) by using an efficiency hardware is also an important course for a design in the art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe invention is directed to a plurality of code generating apparatuses and generating method for providing output code according to a manufacturing variation of a plurality of OTP cells.
The invention is also directed to a one time programming (OTP) memory block for providing at least one of identity code and random number code.
The code generating apparatus of present disclosure includes a plurality of OTP memory cell strings, a switch, and a sense amplifier. Each of the OTP memory cell strings includes a plurality of OTP memory cells, wherein the OTP memory cell strings are respectively coupled to a plurality of bit lines. The switch is coupled to the bit lines. The sense amplifier is coupled to the switch. Wherein, the switch selects two of the bit lines to respectively couple to a first input end and a second input end of the sense amplifier, and the sense amplifier senses a difference of signals on the two selected bit lines to generate an output code, and the output code is determined by manufacturing variation of the two selected OTP memory cells.
The present disclosure provides an OTP memory block, wherein the OTP block includes a plurality of code generating apparatuses, and a first part of the code generating apparatuses provide at least one identity code.
The present disclosure provides another OTP memory block, wherein the OTP block includes a plurality of code generating apparatuses, and a first part of the code generating apparatuses provide at least one random number code.
According to the above descriptions, the output code can be determined by a manufacturing variation of each of the OTP memory cells, and the output code also can be adjusted by adjusting the reference signal. That is, the output code generated by the code generating apparatus can be treated as hardware intrinsic identity code for an OTP block of the code generating apparatus. Also, a random number generator can be achieved by the code generating apparatus of present disclosure.
In order to make the aforementioned and other features and advantages of the invention comprehensible, several exemplary embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
On the other hand, in this embodiment, the OTP memory cells 111-112 respectively receive programming signals AF_a and AF_b for programming operation, and respectively receive word line signals WL_a and WL_b for reading operation.
In detail of operation of the code generating apparatus 100, the OTP memory cells 111-112 are programmed according to the programming signals AF_a and AF_b, firstly. The programming signals AF_a and AF_b are predetermined program bias voltages. Then, when the code generating apparatus 100 is used to generate the output code OC, the OTP memory cell 111 can provide a current to the bit line BL_n according to the word line signal WL_a during a first time period, and the sense amplifier SA may generate the output code OC by sensing the difference between the current on the bit line BL_n and the reference signal Iref during the first time period. During a second time period, the OTP memory cell 112 can provide another current to the bit line BL_n according to the word line signal WL_b during a second time period, and the sense amplifier SA may generate the output code OC by sensing the difference between the another current on the bit line BL_n and the reference signal Iref during the second time period, wherein, the OTP memory cell 111 may stop to provide the current to the bit line BL_n during the second time period.
It can be easily seen, by turning on each of the OTP memory cells 111-112 in series, the output code OC having a plurality bits arranged in series can be generated. Of course, a number of the OTP memory cells coupled to the bit line BL_n is not limited to 2, and may equal to N, and N may be any integer larger than 1.
It should be noted here, current values of the currents respectively provided by the OTP memory cells 111 and 112 can be determined by the process fluctuations of each of the OTP memory cells 111 and 112. Such as a gate oxide thickness, a poly size, a junction profile, contact resistances on the bit line BL_n, metal CD (critical distance) of the bit line BL_n, etc. Furthermore, current values of the currents respectively provided by the OTP memory cells 111 and 112 can also be determined by programming environments and data reading environments, such as voltage value of the programming signal AF_a and AF_b, and the voltage values of word line signals WL_a and WL_b received by the OTP memory cells 111 and 112. Referring to
In this embodiment, the OTP memory cell 111 includes a pass transistor PT1 and a transistor capacitor CT1. A first end of the pass transistor PT1 is coupled to the bit line BL_n, a control end of the pass transistor PT1 receives the word line signal WL_a, and a second end of the pass transistor PT1 is coupled to a first end of the transistor capacitor CT1. Further, a control end of the transistor capacitor CT1 receives a programming signal, and a second end of the transistor capacitor CT1 may be floated.
On the other hand, the output code OC may be adjusted by adjusting the reference signal Iref provided by the reference signal provider 130. Referring to
It should be noted, the current value of the reference signal Iref may be set within a range, and the range may be determined by a bit current SBC1 corresponding to a maximum bit count MBC1. The range may be set to include the bit current SBC1 corresponding to the maximum bit count MBC1, and a width of the range may be set by a pre-set value.
In another embodiment of present disclosure, the code generating apparatus 100 may also be used to provide random number code. Referring to
By setting the range IrefR with a narrow width, a comparison result of the sense amplifier SA is sensitive to electronic characteristic of each of the OTP memory cells 111-112, and whether a bit current provided by each of the OTP memory cells 111-112 is larger than the reference signal Iref or not may be determined by a manufacturing variation (such as a process variation) of each of the OTP memory cells 111-112. It can be seen, at least one manufacturing variation of the OTP memory cells 111-112 can be enlarged when the OTP memory cells 111-112 are programmed by a predetermined program bias voltage, and the output code may be a security code accordingly. Furthermore, the programming operation of the OTP memory cells 111-112 cannot be operated by user, and the electronic characteristic of the programmed OTP memory cells 111-112 may not be changed.
That is, the output code OC can be determined by process parameters of the OTP memory cells 111-112, and the output code OC may be used to be an identity codes and/or the security code which cannot be modified by users. Such as that, the output code OC of present disclosure may be used for a physically unclonable function technology.
Referring to
In this embodiment, the code generating apparatus 200 further includes an encoder 250. The encoder 250 is coupled to an output end of the sense amplifier SA to receive the output code OC. The encoder 250 may encode the output code OC to generate an encoded output code EOC. Please be noted here, the encoder 250 may operates any encoding operation which is well-known by a person skilled in the art on the output code OC to generate the encoded output code EOC. For example, the encoder 250 may operates a parity check on the output code which has a plurality of bits to generate the encoded output code EOC, or, the encoder 250 may count a number of “1” (or “0”) on the output code which has a plurality of bits to generate the encoded output code EOC.
To ensure the consistency of the output code OC for hardware intrinsic ID creation, one or more ECC bit(s) can be created along with the output code OC in the beginning by the encoder 250. The ECC bit(s) may be stored in an OTP block. The OTP block mentioned above may be same with the OTP block with the OTP memory cells 211-212 and 221-222, or the OTP block mentioned above may be different from the OTP block with the OTP memory cells 211-212 and 221-222. In additional, to ensure the reliability of the generated output code OC for hardware intrinsic ID creation, some security flags also may be used to protect the OTP memory cells 211-212 and 221-222 from any re-write operation once. The flags may be stored in an OTP block which is same as the OTP block with the OTP memory cells 211-212 and 221-222, or the flags may be stored in another OTP block different from the OTP block with the OTP memory cells 211-212 and 221-222.
In some embodiment, the flags may also be used to protect the OTP block from any read operation. That is, the output code OC can be prevented from read without authorization by using the flags.
The encoder 250 may be a logic circuit which is implemented by one or more logical gates, or the encoder 250 also may be implemented by a processor which can execute one or more encoding algorithm(s).
Referring to
The sense amplifier SA senses a difference of signals on the two selected bit lines to generate an output code OC. In an embodiment of present disclosure, the sense amplifier SA may compare currents on the two selected bit lines to generate the output code OC.
The encoder 620 is coupled to the output end of the sense amplifier SA. The encoder 620 receives the output code OC and encodes the output code to generate an encoded output code EOC.
It should be noted here, the OTP cells 611, 612, 631 and 632 of the code generating apparatus 600 are programmed. In this embodiment, the OTP memory cells 611 and 631 may form an OTP memory cell pair, and the OTP memory cells 612 and 632 form another OTP memory cell pair. The OTP memory cells in each of the OTP pairs may be programmed simultaneously, and the OTP memory cells in each of the OTP pairs may also be read simultaneously. In
If the bit lines BL_n and BL_m are two selected bit lines, read currents provided to the bit lines BL_n and BL_m may be respectively determined by the manufacturing variation (such as an intrinsic process variation) and programming environment of the OTP memory cells 611 and 631, or the OTP memory cells 612 and 632, and the output code OC can be obtained according to the intrinsic process variation and programming environment of the OTP memory cells 611 and 631, or the OTP memory cells 612 and 632.
Referring to
In
It should be noted here, there are many other structures may also be used to implement the OTP memory cell of presented disclosure. Such as, an anti-fuse cell with one pass transistor and two MOS capacitors; an anti-fuse cell with two pass transistors on single side and one MOS capacitor; an anti-fuse cell with one pass transistor on each side and one MOS capacitor lying between; an anti-fuse cell with one pass transistor, one MOS capacitor, and one isolation transistor; and, an OTP memory cell with one pass transistor and one floating-gate transistor for charge storage.
Referring to
In some embodiment, the OTP memory block 800 may be coupled to at least one multiple time program (MTP) memory block 850, wherein the MTP memory block 850 is used for normal data storage.
Referring to
It should be noted here, when the sub-blocks are used to provide identity codes respectively, the output codes are different between blocks and each of the output codes is treated as hardware intrinsic identity to each of the sub-blocks.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
Claims
1. A code generating apparatus, comprising:
- a plurality of one time programming (OTP) memory cell strings, and each of the OTP memory cell strings comprising a plurality of OTP memory cells, wherein the OTP memory cell strings are respectively coupled to a plurality of bit lines;
- a switch, coupled to the bit lines; and
- a sense amplifier, coupled to the switch,
- wherein all of the plurality of OTP memory cells are programmed and the switch selects two of the bit lines to respectively couple to a first input end and a second input end of the sense amplifier, and the sense amplifier senses a difference of signals on the two selected bit lines to generate an output code; and
- wherein, the output code is determined by at least one manufacturing variation of the two selected OTP memory cells.
2. The code generating apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein two of the OTP memory cells in different OTP memory cell strings respectively provides two read currents to the selected bit lines, and the sense amplifier generates the output code by comparing the read currents.
3. The code generating apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:
- an encoder, coupled to an output end of the sense amplifier, and generating an encoded output code by encoding the output code.
4. An one time programming (OTP) memory block, comprising:
- a plurality of code generating apparatuses as claimed in claim 1,
- wherein, a first part of the code generating apparatuses provide at least one identity code.
5. The OTP memory block as claimed in claim 4, wherein a second part of the code generation apparatuses provide at least one random number code.
6. The OTP memory block as claimed in claim 5, wherein a third part of the code generating apparatuses used for normal data storage.
7. An one time programming (OTP) memory block, comprising:
- a plurality of code generating apparatuses as claimed in claim 1,
- wherein, a first part of the code generating apparatuses provide at least one random number code.
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 23, 2018
Publication Date: Mar 28, 2019
Applicant: eMemory Technology Inc. (Hsinchu)
Inventors: Wei-Zhe Wong (Hsinchu County), Ching-Sung Yang (Hsinchu City), Ching-Hsiang Hsu (Hsinchu County)
Application Number: 16/198,884