US Patent 7485976 Tamper resistant packaging and approach

A tamper-resistant packaging approach protects non-volatile memory. According to an example embodiment of the present invention, an array of magnetic memory elements (130-132) in an integrated circuit (100) are protected from magnetic flux(122) by a package (106) including a magnet (120). Flux from the magnet is directed away from the magnetic memory elements by the package. When tampered with, such as by removal of a portion of the package for accessing the magnetic memory elements, the package allows the flux to reach some or all of the magnetic memory elements, which causes a change in a logic state thereof. With this approach, the magnetic memory elements are protected from tampering.