WASHINGTON -- The US Patent Office has awarded Battelle Memorial Institute a patent for a method to distinguish fake electronic components from real ones.

The Battelle patent describes a system and method of electronic component authentication or component classification said to reduce the vulnerability of systems [i.e., end-products] to counterfeits. Intrinsic deterministically random property data can be obtained from a set of authentic electronic components, processed and clustered to create a classifier that can distinguish whether an unknown electronic component is authentic or counterfeit.

Battelle uses the technology in its Barricade system, which uses the power consumption waveform of an IC and the lab's proprietary algorithm to identify an individual signature or fingerprint that can be checked against a secure database.

The patent number is 9,759,757 and the inventors are Larry J. House and Dale C. Engelhart.