Using glass weave marker structure to authenticate printed circuit boards
An apparatus includes a printed circuit board (PCB) that includes a woven glass laminate layer. The woven glass laminate layer includes a plurality of glass bundles woven together, where a marker structure including at least one marker is defined within the woven glass laminate layer. A security chip is coupled with the PCB and includes memory that stores an authentication identifier of the PCB, where the authentication ID includes a representation of the marker structure.
1 . An apparatus comprising:
a printed circuit board (PCB) comprising a layer, wherein a marker structure comprising a combination of markers is defined within the layer, each marker is provided at a predetermined interval along the layer and has one or more unique properties, wherein the layer comprises a plurality of bundles of fibers combining to form the layer, and the marker structure comprises bundles of fibers provided at a location within the layer that differ in composition, size, and shape in relation to bundles of fibers provided within the layer outside the location; and
a security chip coupled with the PCB and comprising memory that stores an authentication identifier (ID) of the PCB, the authentication ID comprising:
a graph that represents the one or more unique properties of each marker within the marker structure, or
a hash function of a numerical value representing an image of the marker structure.
2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the PCB comprises a plurality of vertically stacked layers, and the marker structure comprises a plurality of markers that are disposed in the plurality of vertically stacked layers.
3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more unique properties comprise one or more of a color, location, shape, size or orientation of a plurality of glass bundles.
4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the graph is compared with a representation of the marker structure using subgraph isomorphism to determine whether a match exists between the representation of the marker structure and the authentication ID.
5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the hash function is a cryptographic hash function.
6 . An apparatus comprising:
a printed circuit board (PCB) comprising a woven glass laminate layer, the woven glass laminate layer comprising a plurality of glass bundles woven together, wherein a marker structure comprising a combination of markers is defined within the woven glass laminate layer, each marker is provided at a predetermined interval along the woven glass laminate layer and has one or more unique properties, wherein the woven glass laminate layer comprises a plurality of woven glass filaments, and the marker structure comprises a location along the woven glass laminate layer in which one or more bundles of filaments at the location differ from other bundles of filaments outside of the location by filament composition, filament size, and filament shape; and
a security chip coupled with the PCB and comprising memory that stores an authentication identifier (ID) of the PCB, the authentication ID comprising:
a graph that represents the one or more unique properties of each marker within the marker structure, or
a hash function of a numerical value representing an image of the marker structure.
7 . The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the marker structure comprises one or more marked glass bundles that are marked in a manner that is different from other glass bundles within the woven glass laminate layer.
8 . The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the PCB comprises a plurality of vertically stacked woven glass laminate layers, and the marker structure comprises a plurality of markers that are disposed in the plurality of vertically stacked woven glass laminate layers.
9 . The apparatus of claim 6 , further comprising an inspection tool coupled with the PCB, wherein the inspection tool captures the image of the marker structure.
10 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the inspection tool comprises a camera that generates the image of the marker structure selected from the group consisting of a black and white image, a color image, an infrared image, an ultraviolet image and an X-ray image.
11 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the PCB comprises an inspection window located at a surface area for a layer of the PCB that overlies the marker structure, and the inspection tool is coupled with the PCB so as to overlie the inspection window.
12 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the PCB further comprises a conductive layer that at least partially overlies the woven glass laminate layer, wherein the conductive layer includes a cut-out portion that is aligned with the inspection window and the marker structure of the woven glass laminate layer.
13 . An electronic device comprising the apparatus of claim 6 .
14 . The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the markers are arranged at a selected depth.
15 . The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the graph is compared with a representation of the marker structure using subgraph isomorphism to determine whether a match exists between the representation of the marker structure and the authentication ID.
16 . The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the hash function is a cryptographic hash function.
17 . The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the PCB is authenticated based on the marker structure during an initialization of the PCB.
18 . The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the PCB is authenticated based on the marker structure during a production of the PCB.
19 . A method comprising:
obtaining a representation of the marker structure defined within the printed circuit board (PCB) of the apparatus of claim 6 ; and
comparing the representation of the marker structure with the authentication identifier (ID) to determine whether a match exists between the representation of the marker structure and the authentication ID.
20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the comparing the representation of the marker structure with the authentication ID further comprises:
in response to a determination that the representation of the marker structure does not match the authentication ID, providing an indication of authentication failure for the PCB.
21 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the obtaining of the representation of the marker structure further comprises obtaining one or more images of the marker structure using an inspection tool coupled with the PCB at a location that overlies the marker structure.
22 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the PCB comprises a plurality of vertically stacked woven glass laminate layers, and the one or more images of the marker structure are obtained as a plurality of markers that are disposed in the plurality of vertically stacked woven glass laminate layers.