An integrated circuit identification device (ICID) to be incorporated into
an integrated circuit (IC) includes an array of electronic cells in which
the magnitude of an output signal of each cell is a function of randomly
occurring parametric variations which vary from cell-to-cell. The ICID
also includes a circuit for measuring the output of each cell and for
producing output data having a value reflecting the particular
combination of measured characteristics of all of the elements of the
array. When we make the number of elements in the array large enough, we
insure that to a high degree of probability, the pattern of measured
array cell characteristics for an ICID embedded in any one IC will be
unique and distinguishable from such patterns measured by ICIDs embedded
in millions of other ICs. Thus the value of the output data produced by
an ICID circuit acts as a unique "fingerprint" for the IC in which it is
installed, and can be used as a unique identification (ID) for that IC.