I-Corps: Novel Smart Meters with Built-in Self-Test and Hardware Security

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is based on enhancing the reliability, longevity, security, and trustworthiness of the advanced metering infrastructure in smart grids. The integration of trustworthy information technology in the power grid will facilitate effective and efficient energy management in the presence of distributed generation with renewable sources. This team's technology, employing hardware-oriented security and trust, built-in self-test, and device authentication, can be applied to any industry that employs VLSI/FPGA chips and faces security risks. For example, this technology can be integrated into medical instrumentation in the health industry and dash-board chips in vehicles in the auto industry to make them more secure, reliable, and trustworthy.This I-Corps project is based on earlier NSF funded research in the area of hardware-oriented security and testing of digital/integrated circuits. Its application in smart meters overcomes current meters problems by providing remote re-configurability to accommodate current and future technology advancements and additional security. While there are multiple smart meter manufacturers in the US, this project's technology has a strong focus on hardware re-programmability (leading to increased longevity and expandability), reliability, and security of the system. Also, current smart meters are not easily updated as technology advances. The proposed meters provide high security, based on special hardware based techniques, and incorporate built-in self-test circuitry. Hardware-oriented security is implemented using physical unclonable functions which provide authentication and trust to the programmable chip and also establish the authenticity of the smart meter. The meters can also detect the presence of hardware Trojans, which can be implanted by untrusted manufacturers and foundries abroad, to steal information or hamper the functionality of the device.