Beyond the Interconnections: Split Manufacturing in RF Designs
Beyond the Interconnections: Split Manufacturing in RF Designs
复制标题
超越互连：射频设计中的拆分制造
DOI：
10.3390/electronics4030541
复制
发表时间：
2015
期刊：
影响因子：
2.9
通讯作者：
Yier Jin
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Yu Bi;Jiann;Yier Jin
随着芯片制造的集成电路（IC）设计流程的全球化，知识产权（IP）盗版正成为主要的安全威胁。虽然大多数保护方法专用于数字电路，但我们正在尝试保护射频（RF）设计。首次将分体式制造方法应用于射频电路保护。针对安全性和设计开销的权衡，引入了三种不同的实现情况，即，去除顶部金属层、去除顶部两个金属层以及专用于RF电路的设计混淆。我们还开发了一个定量的安全评估方法来衡量的RF设计下的分裂制造的保护水平。最后，以一个简单的AB类功率放大器和一个更复杂的E类功率放大器为例，证明了：（1）去除顶部金属层或顶部两层金属层可以对RF电路提供高水平的保护，而对国内代工厂的要求较低;（2）设计混淆方法提供了最高级别的电路保护，尽管以设计开销为代价;以及（3）分离制造可能更适合于RF设计而不是数字电路，并且它可以有效地减少不可信的离岸代工厂中的IP盗版。
With the globalization of the integrated circuit (IC) design flow of chip fabrication, intellectual property (IP) piracy is becoming the main security threat. While most of the protection methods are dedicated for digital circuits, we are trying to protect radio-frequency (RF) designs. For the first time, we applied the split manufacturing method in RF circuit protection. Three different implementation cases are introduced for security and design overhead tradeoffs, i.e., the removal of the top metal layer, the removal of the top two metal layers and the design obfuscation dedicated to RF circuits. We also developed a quantitative security evaluation method to measure the protection level of RF designs under split manufacturing. Finally, a simple Class AB power amplifier and a more sophisticated Class E power amplifier are used for the demonstration through which we prove that: (1) the removal of top metal layer or the top two metal layers can provide high-level protection for RF circuits with a lower request to domestic foundries; (2) the design obfuscation method provides the highest level of circuit protection, though at the cost of design overhead; and (3) split manufacturing may be more suitable for RF designs than for digital circuits, and it can effectively reduce IP piracy in untrusted off-shore foundries.