CAREER: Parameter Obfuscation: A Novel Methodology for the Protection of Analog Intellectual Property

硬件安全，特别是集成电路知识产权（IP）的保护，变得越来越重要，因为对手有资金和经验手段来逆向工程和复制竞争对手的知识产权。大量的研究工作致力于保护数字电路，但对模拟电路的保护在很大程度上被忽视了。这项工作的重点是探索技术，以提高模拟电路的安全攻击，如逆向工程和克隆，这两者都可能导致知识产权盗窃。模拟参数混淆被提出作为一种保护模拟电路免受对抗性盗窃的手段。模拟参数混淆的大设计空间，包括偏置条件，增益，带宽，噪声系数，质量因子，中心频率，相位噪声等等，提供了一种掩盖模拟电路功能的方法，而不仅仅是为数字电路开发的简单二进制功能逻辑锁定。为了从逆向工程中提高模拟电路的安全性，建议的研究包括：1)开发新的基于参数的模拟电路混淆技术；2)开发算法和方法来选择和裁剪最适合混淆的模拟电路参数（增益、偏置点、带宽、噪声系数、质量因子、相位噪声等）；3)开发用于评估参数混淆技术的初始度量。4)在超外差接收机上实现了模糊技术，并进行了实验验证和算法改进。其基本成果是发展一种系统的方法来分析和模糊模拟电路参数，这些参数是多维的和连续的。研究结果将通过演讲和实践研讨会向高中学生展示工程主题。此外，高中生将通过一个由研究者发起和领导的外展项目在研究中得到指导，该项目将学生与教师导师配对。项目产生的数据将在线保存在德雷克塞尔大学的一台服务器上（http://ice.ece.drexel.edu），出版物除外，其版权转移给专业组织（如IEEE或ACM），并有自己的存储库。在项目完成后，所有数据和代码将在公共领域发布，并至少在机构和大学指导方针规定的期限内保存在存储库中。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Hardware security, specifically the protection of integrated circuit intellectual property (IP), has gained importance as adversaries have the financial and experiential means to reverse engineer and replicate competitors' IP. Significant research effort has been devoted to protecting digital circuits, but the protection of analog circuits from an adversary has largely been ignored. The focus of this work is to explore techniques to enhance the security of analog circuits from attacks such as reverse engineering and cloning, both of which can lead to IP theft. Analog parameter obfuscation is proposed as a means to protect analog circuits from adversarial theft. The large design space for analog parameter obfuscation, which includes biasing conditions, gains, bandwidths, noise figure, quality factors, center frequency, phase noise, and many more, provides a means to mask analog circuit functionality beyond the simple binary functional logic locking that has been developed for digital circuits. To enhance the security of analog circuits from reverse engineering, the proposed research includes 1) the development of novel parameter-based obfuscation techniques for analog circuits, 2) the development of algorithms and methodologies to select and prune analog circuit parameters (gain, biasing points, bandwidth, noise figure, quality factor, phase noise, etc.) best suited for obfuscation, 3) the development of initial metrics for the evaluation of parameter obfuscation techniques, and 4) the implementation of the obfuscation technique on a superheterodyne receiver for experimental verification and algorithm refinement. The fundamental outcome is to develop a systematic approach to analyze and obfuscate analog circuit parameters that are multi-dimensional and continuous by nature. The research results will be used to expose high school students to engineering topics through presentations and hands-on workshops. In addition, high school students will be mentored in research through an outreach program, initiated and led by the investigator, which pairs students with faculty mentors. The data generated from the project will be maintained online on a server at Drexel University (http://ice.ece.drexel.edu) - with the exception of publications, for which copyright is transferred to a professional organization (such as IEEE or ACM) and which maintain their own repository. At the completion of the project, all data and code will be released in the public domain and maintained in the repository for at least the required period set by agency and university guidelines.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.