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enter image description here

The above diagram is from the IC Activation (locking/unlocking) slide of Fighting against theft, cloning and counterfeiting of integrated circuits by Lilian Bossuet Associate Professor, CNRS Chaire of Hardware Security

How can a designer (so I guess who just creates the HDL RTL description) create something in netlist to provide a "Remote IC activation system" that will be used to UNLOCK the device after manufacturing? I mean, how can designer be sure to authorize only legit ones? How is performed?Why cloned cant?

I mean, the PUF is available/created only after manufacturing, so how can designer know the PUF in advance to authorize that device? How is performed? Why a illegal fab can't create uncloned one and can't be authorized? What is preventing it?

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    \$\begingroup\$ What's with the downvotes? This seems like a perfectly fine question about electronics manufacturing, which is on-topic here. \$\endgroup\$
    – marcelm
    Commented Jul 7 at 12:49
  • \$\begingroup\$ Probably because the question is too broad, and needs to more narrowly focused. \$\endgroup\$
    – SteveSh
    Commented Jul 7 at 13:13
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    \$\begingroup\$ "How can a designer ... UNLOCK the device after manufacturing?" seems perfectly narrow to me. \$\endgroup\$
    – Davide Andrea
    Commented Jul 7 at 14:07
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    \$\begingroup\$ The question is too broad, but this very instructive picture explains everything. Whoever has access to the innards of the chip's design surely will have all necessary conditions to plan and implement a plethora of measures to assign that only the properly-activated chips will work. Give a look at [link] (pufsecurity.com/technology/puf) \$\endgroup\$
    – mguima
    Commented Jul 7 at 16:07
  • \$\begingroup\$ As a breadcrumb: look into the PCI standard for point-of-sale terminals… Maxim/Dallas/ADI secure microcontroller \$\endgroup\$
    – MarkU
    Commented Jul 7 at 21:03

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