TechInsights’ team of systems experts develops unique solutions to difficult problems. We work closely with you to de-risk your complex systems patent evidence of use challenges.
Our technical capabilities in functional testing include:
- Functional & feature testing including in-circuit micro-probing on fully functional products (handsets, TV sets, STB)
- Test pads deposition and IC circuit editing using FIB technology
- Nano-probing of ICs & discrete devices
- Hardware access & probing
- JTAG, ICE, Flash readback
- Logic & protocol analyzers
- Base station monitoring and emulation
- Wi-Fi APs and STAs
- IoT & BTLE networks and devices
Examples of our work include:
Mobile secure/contactless pay EoU
Objective: prove IP infringement related to use of a near field controller (NFC) device
Challenge: the EoU required a combination of circuit reverse engineering and systems & software reverse engineering on some of the most secure/protected areas of the mobile device
Solution:
- circuit reverse engineering to identify key areas of the NFC circuit and infer the secure pay functionality;
- functional testing using a working mobile device and an actual pay terminal, capturing the info exchanged between devices to determine parts of the communications protocol;
- software reverse engineering using dynamic debugging to determine the NFC device operation and the specific features used in the mobile device to provide EoU
Smart vacuum cleaner patent selection
Objective: provide a selection of patents with licensing potential focusing on smart vacuum cleaners
Challenge: identify key product features driving consumer demand without using or testing the products
Solution:
- key players (manufacturing and design) were identified based on product reviews, published white papers and consumer reports;
- researched and analysed the patents significant to the products and players to create a database of keywords to be used in further patent searches
- used patent research tools to find and review patents from the IP landscape which were in the same inventive space with the key players and their products, then further filtered those patents to match the criteria set by the client
Automotive tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) EoU analysis
Objective: develop EoU for specific TPMS functionality
Challenge: devising a way to nanoprobe and extract pressure reading from an operating TPMS in a lab environment outside of a tire
Solution:
- source and teardown TPMS modules and use x-ray & optical die images to identify the IC package containing the controller and pressure sensor;
- expose the package in the module and jet etch an opening in the package where the die were connected ;
- devised a test jig and functional test protocol with remote pressure monitor to determine the tire pressure from the module under operation; (iv) determine the pressure storage regime and generate EoU
Automotive ABS control analysis
Objective: generate EoU related to ABS control
Challenge: devising a way to operate the car and trigger the ABS in a test environment without access to open source documentation
Solution:
- a thorough review of the product configuration manual resulted in several test configurations;
- testing was carried out for each configuration and results were observed using RF measurement equipment;
- further test cases were designed and carried out to identify patents for EoU documentation
Microwave communication system EoU
Objective: generate EoU related to microwave communication system design and RF distortion compensation technique
Challenge: designing a proper test set-up and configuration to enable the target system to function in a lab-environment instead of a complete end-to-end communication link
Solution:
- a thorough review of the product configuration manual resulted in several test configurations;
- testing was carried out for each configuration and results were observed using RF measurement equipment;
- further test cases were designed and carried out to identify patents for EoU documentation
E-cigarettes EoU
Objective: create EoU related to E-cigarettes operation
Challenge: Circuit & Systems RE collaboration, required organizing large digital circuitry (more than 30K cells) into hierarchical structures create a functional model of the ASIC
Solution:
- perform Circuit RE to produce a complete netlist of the device;
- use a proprietary digital circuitry organizational tool to discover and organize cells into a hierarchical structure;
- use signals captured from the functional testing to understand the circuit design and control logic, including the design of the crypto engine
- the analysis led to the creation of a model that was used to simulate the functions performed by the ASIC. A detailed technical specification was produced with all the commands and their corresponding functionalities, timing and sequencing, and the expected outputs were explained
Digital circuit RE and simulation
Objective: produce the technical specification of a custom ASIC device
Challenge: Circuit & Systems RE collaboration, required organizing large digital circuitry (more than 30K cells) into hierarchical structures create a functional model of the ASIC
Solution:
- perform Circuit RE to produce a complete netlist of the device;
- use a proprietary digital circuitry organizational tool to discover and organize cells into a hierarchical structure;
- use signals captured from the functional testing to understand the circuit design and control logic, including the design of the crypto engine;
- the analysis led to the creation of a model that was used to simulate the functions performed by the ASIC. A detailed technical specification was produced with all the commands and their corresponding functionalities, timing and sequencing, and the expected outputs were explained
Time-of-flight sensors benchmarking
Objective: produce a test bench to measure the precision and accuracy of time-of-flight sensors operating under different optical conditions
Challenge: design a semi-automated test set-up in a controlled environment to accurately measure the performance of the time-of-flight sensors over various distances and optical wavelengths
Solution:
- thorough research of the optical equipment and other components required for the test set-up;
- trial several test bed configurations to evaluate their impact on the performance benchmark test ;
- write applications and scripts to automate the test iterations to avoid discrepancies due to human interventions
- a suite of benchmark tests were designed and performed on different time-of-flight sensors generating comparative / competitive benchmark data
TIPS Webinar: Techniques to Analyze NAND Flash and SSD Devices - Internal Probing, Waveform Analysis, and More
This presentation examines some of the areas of innovation in NAND Flash and SSD devices and provides an overview of the various testing methods we apply to analyze these innovations.
Why TechInsights?
Content
Broadest range of electronics and semiconductor reverse engineering results revealing innovation in circuit design, IC structures and manufacturing processes, and semiconductor packaging
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
Talent to bridge technology and patents – aggregate experience with client portfolios – technical skills with the ability to solve a broad range of problems (aka do the hard stuff), and who have seen a huge array of technology (industry experience and exposure to TechInsights library)
Reverse engineering capability
Ability to investigate the hard stuff or to gather data on a range of technologies
Data
Proprietary database of evidence of use and patent ratings that can identify trends in patent to product mapping
Patent Tools
Increase efficiency of SME’s by focusing them on reduced sets of patents, improving workflow the patents they have, and capturing SME output for re-use and data mining
Scale
Ability to run large, high-volume, complex programs while providing consistent output and delivering a robust work product
“We don’t give TechInsights the easy stuff. We give them the work we don’t have the capability to do internally. They helped us validate the potential of monetizing a group of systems patents that initially fell outside of our IP strategy. Now we see that we can derive licensing revenue outside of the semiconductor industry.”
Director of IP, Semiconductor industry
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