US 7,551,098 B1
Point of sale terminal having pulsed current tamper control sensing
Raymond O. Chock, San Jose, Calif. (US); and Mark Hess, San Francisco, Calif. (US)
Assigned to ZiLOG, Inc., San Jose, Calif. (US)
Filed on May 28, 2005, as Appl. No. 11/139,418.
Int. Cl. G08B 21/00 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 340—660  [340/652; 340/657; 340/661; 340/662; 340/663; 174/50; 174/520] 23 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A point of sale terminal, comprising:
a tamper conductive mesh comprising a plurality of wire pairs; and
an integrated circuit including a processor, a tamper detect circuit and a tamper detect terminal, wherein the tamper conductive mesh is connected to the tamper detect terminal, the tamper detect circuit including a current source and causing a pulse of current to flow through the current source and through the tamper detect terminal and through the tamper conductive mesh, the tamper detect circuit determining whether when the pulse of current is flowing a voltage on the tamper detect terminal is both below a predetermined upper bias voltage and above a predetermined lower bias voltage indicative of tampering by alteration of the conductive mesh pairs.