Block, Inc.

Square, Inc.

Ciena Corporation

Bertram Leesti

Afshin Rezayee

Jeremy Wade

Max Joseph Guise

Yue Yang

Kamran Sharifi

Emad Bidari

Haipeng Yan

Kim Bryon Roberts

Shahab Oveis Gharan

William Martin Snelgrove

Mahmoud Taherzadehboroujeni

An electronic device may include a printed circuit board having a physically unclonable function (PUF) source. The electronic device may also include processing circuitry positioned on the printed circuit board. The PUF source includes a plurality of traces and each trace includes a first portion and a second portion having an increased surface area relative to the first portion. The PUF source is responsive to an input from the processing circuitry to provide PUF data based on the impedance characteristics of the plurality of traces. The processing circuitry is further configured to process the PUF data from the PUF source to perform an operation within the device.

Device security with physically unclonable functions

A system for sensing a proximity of a near field communication (NFC) device includes an NFC reader that communicates with a remote NFC device through load modulation. The NFC reader transmits a wireless carrier signal from an antenna, and the remote NFC device modulates the carrier signal by changing its internal impedance in order to transmit data to the NFC reader. The NFC reader has at least one antenna for receiving the modulated signal. The antenna is coupled to circuitry that analyzes the signal received from the remote NFC device The circuitry then identifies a resonant frequency for the remote NFC device based on the received signal and controls transmission characteristics of the NFC reader for communicating with the remote NFC device based on the identified resonant frequency.

Controlling reader transmissions based on device resonant frequency

A near field communication (NFC) system includes an NFC reader that communicates with a remote NFC device through load modulation. The NFC reader transmits a wireless carrier signal from an antenna and has a plurality of passive receive antennas to receive the modulated signal. The NFC reader also has circuitry to provide a plurality of data streams that define data recovered from the modulated wireless carrier signal received from the plurality of receivers. The circuitry then selects, based on a location of the NFC device relative to the NFC reader, one of the plurality of data streams for use in processing a transaction.

Transaction processing based on device location

An electronic device, such as a payment reader, may include a physically unclonable function (PUF) source to generate a plurality of PUF values. The electronic device may also include circuitry to compare the plurality of PUF values from the PUF source to determine a degree of randomness of the at least one PUF source in generating the plurality of PUF values. The circuitry can then determine, based on the determined degree of randomness, whether to use the PUF values from the PUF source to perform a secure operation for the electronic device.

An electronic device may include a printed circuit board having a physically unclonable function (PUF) source. The electronic device may also include an integrated circuit (IC) chip positioned on the printed circuit board, and the first PUF source may be embedded in or formed on the printed circuit board external to the IC chip. The IC chip has processing circuitry that is configured to determine PUF data based on the PUF source. The processing circuitry is further configured to determine a cryptographic key or authentication token based on the PUF data and to perform at least one secure operation using the cryptographic key or authentication token.

A system for sensing a proximity of a near field communication (NFC) device includes an NFC reader that communicates with a remote NFC device through load modulation. The NFC reader transmits a wireless carrier signal from an antenna, and the remote NFC device modulates such carrier signal by changing its internal impedance in order to transmit data to the NFC reader. The NFC reader has at least one antenna for receiving the modulated signal. This antenna is coupled to circuitry that measures a spectrum of the received signal and identifies a resonant frequency of the NFC device based on the measured spectrum. Such circuitry also determines the signal's amplitude at such resonant frequency and precisely estimates the distance of the remote NFC device from the reader based on such amplitude. By estimating the precise distance of the remote NFC device from the reader, the location of the remote NFC device relative to the reader can be precisely determined, and this information may be used to operate the NFC reader more efficiently.

Systems and methods for sensing locations of near field communication devices

A device may include one or more sources such as circuit elements and electrical components that function as sources for physically unclonable function (PUF) data. PUF data may be acquired from the PUF sources and one or more error correction codes may be applied to the PUF data. The resulting PUF values may be used to generate information that may be used for device security operations such as encryption and tamper detection.

A frequency decimation block for processing an analog input signal including a high-bandwidth data signal to generate a parallel set of parallel output signals, in which each output signal represents a respective portion of the high-bandwidth data signal. A preamplifier is provided for amplifying the input signal. A frequency domain divider divides the amplified input signal to generate a set of frequency band signals including a low frequency band signal, a mid-frequency band signal, and a high frequency band signal. Each frequency band signal is supplied to at least one signal path. A respective non-linear processor is connected in each of M signal paths processes the input signal using a respective branch signal to yield a corresponding composite signal. A respective Low-Pass Filter (LPF) is connected in each signal path, for low-pass filtering at least the composite signals to generate corresponding ones of the parallel output signals.

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Toronto, Canada

Bertram Leesti