Globalization of the chip design and manufacturing industry has imposed significant threats to the hardware security of integrated circuits (ICs). It has made ICs more susceptible to various hardware attacks. Blockchain provides a trustworthy and distributed platform to store immutable records related to the evidence of intellectual property (IP) creation, authentication of provenance, and confidential data storage. However, blockchain encounters major security challenges due to its decentralized nature of ledgers that contain sensitive data. The research objective is to design a dedicated programmable hardware security modules scheme to safeguard and maintain sensitive information contained in the blockchain networks in the context of the IC supply chain. Thus, the blockchain framework could rely on the proposed hardware security modules and separate the entire cryptographic operations within the system as stand-alone hardware units. This work put forth a novel approach that could be considered and utilized to enhance blockchain security in real-time. The critical cryptographic components in blockchain secure hash algorithm-256 (SHA-256) and the elliptic curve digital signature algorithm are designed as separate entities to enhance the security of the blockchain framework. Physical unclonable functions are adopted to perform authentication of transactions in the blockchain. Relative comparison of designed modules with existing works clearly depicts the upper hand of the former in terms of performance parameters.
Open access
Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security
Integrated Circuits and Semiconductor Failure Analysis
Electronic systems are ubiquitous today, playing an irreplaceable role in our personal lives as well as in critical infrastructures such as power grid, satellite communication, and public transportation. In the past few decades, the security of software running on these systems has received significant attention. However, hardware has been assumed to be trustworthy and reliable "by default" without really analyzing the vulnerabilities in the electronics supply chain. With the rapid globalization of the semiconductor industry, it has become challenging to ensure the integrity and security of hardware. In this paper, we discuss the integrity concerns associated with a globalized electronics supply chain. More specifically, we divide the supply chain into six distinct entities: IP owner/foundry (OCM), distributor, assembler, integrator, end user, and electronics recycler, and analyze the vulnerabilities and threats associated with each stage. To address the concerns of the supply chain integrity, we propose a blockchain-based certificate authority framework that can be used to manage critical chip information such as electronic chip identification (ECID), chip grade, transaction time, etc. The decentralized nature of the proposed framework can mitigate most threats of the electronics supply chain, such as recycling, remarking, cloning, and overproduction.
Open access
Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security
Neuroscience and Neural Engineering
Integrated Circuits and Semiconductor Failure Analysis
Globalization of IC supply chain has increased the risk of counterfeit, tampered, and re-packaged chips in the market. Counterfeit electronics poses a security risk in safety critical applications like avionics, SCADA systems, and defense. It also affects the reputation of legitimate suppliers and causes financial losses. Hence, it becomes necessary to develop traceability solutions to ensure the integrity of supply chain, from the time of fabrication to the end of product-life, which allows a customer to verify the provenance of a device or a system. In this article, we present an IC traceability solution based on blockchain. A blockchain is a public immutable database that maintains a continuously growing list of data records secured from tampering and revision. Over the lifetime of an IC, all ownership transfer information is recorded and archived in a blockchain. This safe, verifiable method prevents any party from altering or challenging the legitimacy of the information being exchanged. However, a chain of sales record is not enough to ensure provenance of an IC. There is a need for clone-proof method for securely binding the identity of an IC to the blockchain information. In this article, we propose a method of IC supply chain traceability via blockchain pegged to embedded physically unclonable function (PUF). The blockchain provides ownership transfer record, while the PUF provides unique identification for an IC allowing it to be linked uniquely to a blockchain. Our proposed solution automates hardware and software protocols using blockchain-powered Smart Contract that allows supply chain participants to authenticate, track, trace, analyze, and provision chips throughout their entire life cycle.
Open access
Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security
Integrated Circuits and Semiconductor Failure Analysis
The security of electronic devices is of crucial importance to companies as well as to users.Moreover, companies that develop Intellectual Property also want to protect them from counterfeiting and overbuilding.Company profits, brand reputations and personal information of the users are at stake if there is a breach in the security of these electronic devices.In the classical approach, a system is secured by storing the cryptographic keys permanently in the non-volatile memories that are present in the security devices.However, this permanent storage of the key makes them easy targets for physical attacks; hence compromising the security of the system.A more secure, cost-effective and elegant solution to this permanent key storage is the use of Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs).PUF is a method of producing a signature from a physical object, such as an Integrated Circuit, by relying on the non-reproducible physical attributes of a device.These signatures are unique because fabricated circuits exhibit slightly different electrical behavior from one another even if their design, mask and manufacturing process are identical.Various kinds of PUFs exist; examples are Optical PUF, Butterfly PUF and SRAM PUF.However, the start-up value based SRAM PUFs appear to be the most promising ones for usage in ICs.Although the SRAM PUFs are becoming very popular, only a little has been published in the field of modeling and analysis of their start-up behavior.Reproducing the same start-up behavior, every time the chip is powered-on, is very crucial in order to produce the same cryptographic key.This thesis proposes an analytical model for the start-up value based SRAM PUFs; it helps in understanding the impact of both non-technological parameters (such as supply voltage and temperature) as well as technological parameters (such as the geometry of the transistors and threshold voltage) on the behavior of the start-up values of an SRAM.Various experiments have been performed to analyze and quantify their impact.The results obtained indicate a major impact of the non-technology parameters.The reproducibility of start-up values becomes more likely with slower ramp-ups and lower temperatures.For example, the percentage of reproducible bits increase from 93.5% at 1s ramp-up to 96% at 10ms ramp-up.Amongst the technology parameters, it is observed that a small mismatch of 1.6% in the threshold voltage is enough to flip the start-up value of the cell for 65nm technology.These results have been validated by comparing them with actual silicon data measured at Intrinsic ID.The validation of the results proves the correctness of the analytical model proposed and gives a proof of robustness of the start-up values. Modeling SRAM Start-up Characteristics ForPhysical Unclonable Functions
Open access
Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security
Integrated Circuits and Semiconductor Failure Analysis