Intersil’s power management IC provides fast and flexible battery authentication
Intersil Corporation, a world leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance analogue semiconductors, has released the ISL9206, a highly cost-effective fixed-secret hash engine based on Intersil’s second generation FlexiHash technology. The ISL9206 provides a fast and flexible authentication process, and multi-pass authentication can be used to provide the highest possible security level.
Authentication is achieved through a challenge-response scheme that does not require a fixed challenge and therefore eliminates situations, where eavesdropping on the communication bus could reveal the secrets. The unique secret is never communicated between the host and the device being authenticated.
A counterfeit prevention solution utilising the ISL9206 offers safety and revenue protection at the lowest cost and power. This ISL9206 is suitable for protection against unapproved third-party products for a wide variety of low-cost applications.
Cost-effective battery authentication
Intersil’s ISL9206 is ideal for use in systems such as mobile phones, printer cartridges, power tools, and medical devices that require active authentication to protect consumers against fraud and to protect intellectual property. Mobile phones utilising Lithium-based batteries are particularly vulnerable to counterfeit batteries and the ISL9206 will help to identify counterfeit batteries so the system can take appropriate action.
The ISL9206 is a highly cost-effective fixed-secret hash engine based on Intersil’s second generation FlexiHash technology. ISL9206 has a wide operating voltage range and is suitable for direct powering from a 1-cell Li-ion/Li-poly or a 3-cell series NiMH battery pack. Higher cell count/voltage packs are also supported by connecting to the low cell in the stack.
Communication with the host is achieved through a single-wire XSD interface, a lightweight subset of Intersil’s ISD bus interface. The XSD bus is compatible for use with serial ports offered by all 8250-compatible UARTs or a single GPIO (general purpose input and output) pin of a microprocessor.
The ISL9206 can be powered by the XSD bus when the bus pull-up voltage is 3.3V or higher. The device connects directly to the cell terminals of a battery pack and includes an on-chip voltage regulation circuit, POR, and a non-crystal based oscillator for bus timing reference.
Key features
Challenge-response based authentication scheme using 32-bit challenge code and 8-bit authentication code
Fast and flexible authentication process. Multi-pass authentication can be used to achieve the highest security level if necessary
16x8 OTP ROM stores up to three sets of 32-bit host-selectable secrets with additional programmable memory for storage of up to 48 bits of ID code and/or pack information
FlexiHash engine uses two sets of 32-bit secrets for authentication code generation
Non-unique mapping of the secret key to an 8-bit authentication code maximizes hacking difficulty due to need for exhaustive key search
Supports 1-cell Li-ion/Li-poly and 3-cell series NiMH battery packs (2.6V ~ 4.8V operation), or powered by the XSD bus
XSD single-wire host bus interface communicates with UARTs or a single GPIO. Supports CRC on read data and transfer bit-rate up to 23kbps
True zero power sleep mode, automatically entered after a bus inactivity time-out period
5 Ld SOT-23 package or a 2x3 TDFN
-20°C to +85°C operating temperature range
Pb-free plus anneal available (RoHS compliant)
Target applications
Mobile phone battery pack authentication
Printer and toner cartridges
High-power battery packs for power tools, mobility products, diagnostic equipment
Add-on accessories
Other non-monetary authentication applications
20-Nov-2006