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bashar_aba , 07-06-2018, 08:23 AM

Hi

Any thoughts/ideas about how to best tackle the issue of designing a tamper mesh PCB? Any requirements? I know it would use a thin-film material but can't find specific requirements on routing and the layout.

Regards

robertferanec , 07-10-2018, 06:21 AM

What do you mean by "tamper mesh PCB"?

bashar_aba , 07-10-2018, 06:26 AM

It's a thin film PCB built specifically for external tamper protection. Basically it's a way on informing the secure module inside the CPU that a tamper attack has happened. Followed by a tamper response (whatever it might be).

robertferanec , 07-10-2018, 02:26 PM

I have never done that. I am interested to know more if someone has more information.

anovickis , 02-27-2019, 05:00 PM

here's a good description of how tamper mesh works in a chip,


same concept applies to PCB - basically it's a web of traces surrounding the real traces in every dimension - The web is made in such a way that you can detect a break, perhaps a break with a bypass, or perhaps even a change in some characteristic, thereby letting the circuit know that some tampering or attempts to circumvent the intended operation of the circuit is occuring. I'm not a big fan of this, and since I have seen it broken many times - I question it's effectiveness. You might find this sort of thing on secure entry id card readers or payment card scanners and perhaps also on some satellite TV decoders.

robertferanec , 03-01-2019, 02:48 AM

Interesting video

@anovickis thanks