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

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是基于提高智能电网中先进计量基础设施的可靠性、寿命、安全性和可信度。在可再生能源分布式发电的情况下，电网中可信信息技术的集成将促进有效和高效的能源管理。该团队的技术采用面向硬件的安全与信任，内置自检和设备认证，可以应用于任何使用VLSI/FPGA芯片并面临安全风险的行业。例如，该技术可以集成到健康行业的医疗仪器和汽车行业车辆的仪表板芯片中，使其更加安全、可靠和值得信赖。这个I-Corps项目是基于早期NSF资助的面向硬件安全和数字/集成电路测试领域的研究。它在智能电表中的应用通过提供远程可重新配置性来适应当前和未来的技术进步以及额外的安全性，从而克服了当前电表的问题。虽然美国有多家智能电表制造商，但该项目的技术非常注重硬件的可重新编程性（从而延长使用寿命和可扩展性）、系统的可靠性和安全性。此外，目前的智能电表不容易随着技术的进步而更新。所提出的仪表提供了高安全性，基于特殊的硬件技术，并集成了内置的自检电路。采用物理不可克隆功能实现面向硬件的安全，为可编程芯片提供认证和信任，并建立智能电表的真实性。这些仪表还可以检测硬件木马的存在，这些木马可以被不受信任的国外制造商和代工厂植入，以窃取信息或妨碍设备的功能。

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.