Magnetic Operational Environment Sensor

This Phase II SBIR program will design and manufacture an anti-tamper environmental sensor ideal for preventing “black-box” attacks. The sensor can detect changing environmental conditions from inside a protected cavity with and without applied power. The device is microelectronic compatible which allows it to be very small and extremely versatile. The “black box” can be many sizes and shapes from miniaturized microelectronic systems to large shipping containers. The device can be custom packaged or fully integrated with other integrated circuits at the wafer level. The device works by monitoring the orientation of the protected system with an array of lithographically defined magnetic sensor elements. When the protected volume experiences an unauthorized rotation, turn, or tilt in reference to a fixed environmental magnetic field, the motion is recorded by the sensor. The information is then used to signal a self-destruct of critical systems or signal the erasure of sensitive data.