MRI: Acquisition of High-Resolution Photon Emission/Laser Fault Injection Microscope with High-Performance Computers for Failure Analysis and Security Assessment of Electronic Syst

该MRI采集项目将允许购买高分辨率光子发射/激光故障注入显微镜和高性能计算机。该设置将为学生和行业专业人士提供研究，教学和实践经验的平台。该仪器的研究重点是电子设备和系统在其生命周期的不同阶段的性能和安全分析，这将解决一个关键问题，确保集成电路（IC）供应链的安全。该项目有可能保护在敏感应用中使用的大量设备，例如医疗保健，人工智能（AI），金融，运输和国防。该仪器有一个用户友好的界面，预计将最大限度地方便校内和校外学生和研究人员使用。从该设置中收集的数据将进一步作为AI和网络安全领域研究人员的基准。该仪器将为PI的机构和周边地区带来独特的能力，以进行IC安全的研究，教育和推广活动。PI计划通过在线和现场课程以及研讨会和讲习班教育和培训学生。PI计划促进扩大对这一研究领域的参与，特别是招收女生。 MRI仪器预计将促进面向半导体行业需求的研究，特别是专注于IC的安全性和可靠性，包括三个跨学科主题，IC篡改和伪造检测，安全测试和安全设计，以及使用AI的安全评估。这些主题的共同点是需要一种先进的光学机制，以非破坏性的方式与单个或少数晶体管规模的集成电路相互作用。第一个主题解决了在制造前和制造后可能发生的攻击，第二个主题旨在提供一个框架，用于在制造和设计更安全的芯片后测试和认证芯片。为了实现这些主题中定义的目标，在第三个主题中，人工智能扮演了推动者的角色，因为它的基本角色是帮助更有效地分析数据，并提取更深入和全面的信息来支持先前主题中的方法。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

This MRI acquisition project will allow the purchase of a high-resolution Photon Emission/Laser Fault Injection microscope and high-performance computers. This setup will provide a platform for research, teaching, and hands-on experience for students and industry professionals. The research this instrumentation will enable focuses on the performance and security analyses of electronic devices and systems at different stages of their lifetime which will address a critical issue, securing the integrated circuit (IC) supply chain. The project has the potential to secure large number of devices used across sensitive applications, such as in healthcare, artificial intelligence (AI), finance, transportation, and defense. With a user-friendly interface, the instrument is expected to maximize the accessibility for on-site and off-campus students and researchers. The data collected from this setup will be further made available as benchmarks to researchers in the field of AI and cybersecurity. The instrument will bring unique capabilities to the PIs’ institution and surrounding areas to conduct research, education, and outreach activities on IC security. The PIs plan to educate and train students through online and on-site courses, as well as seminars and workshops. The PIs plan to promote broadening the participation in this research area, especially recruitment of female students. The MRI instrument is expected to facilitate research geared to the needs of the semiconductor industry, especially with the focus on security and reliability of ICs, including three interdisciplinary topics, IC tampering and counterfeiting detection, security testing and design for security, and security evaluation using AI. The common factor among these themes is the requirement for an advanced optical mechanism to interact with an integrated circuit at the scale of a single or a handful of transistors in a non-destructive fashion. While the first topic addresses the attacks that can be mounted during the pre- and post-fabrication, the second topic aims to provide a framework for testing and certifying a chip after manufacturing and designing a more secure chip. To achieve the goals defined in these themes, in the third topic, AI acts as an enabler since its essential role is to help analyze the data more efficiently and extract more in-depth and comprehensive information to back methodologies in the prior topics.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.