CAREER: Backside Protection Against Contactless Optical Attacks on Integrated Circuits in Advanced Technology Nodes

今天，对现代集成电路(IC)的爆炸性需求，特别是从汽车到军事和关键基础设施的不同应用中的片上系统(SoC)，使得它们的安全性成为人们最关心的问题。随着封装的进步和对更小、更省电的器件的需求，异质集成变得更有吸引力，但也使芯片从背面更容易受到攻击。现有的这一领域的研究仅限于少数攻击面，没有全面的框架。目前的对策与传统的IC和SoC设计流程不兼容，并且在制造成本和设计费用方面都很昂贵。该项目的创新之处在于：(1)使用全面的安全分类和定量评估方法评估现代IC对“非接触式光学攻击”的安全脆弱性，以及(2)提供一个框架，以在电路、材料和封装级别制定适当的光学探测攻击对策。该项目在从电子学到材料科学的不同学科中具有更广泛的重要性，供芯片设计师和学生更好地了解IC中的数据流量与由此产生的物理签名之间的相关性，攻击者可以利用这些签名通过新的教育材料和先进的仪器提取敏感信息。该项目(1)调查现代集成电路对背面光学攻击的潜在安全漏洞，并制定安全指标以确定设备中易受攻击的模块；(2)开发基于低面积和功率开销的电路解决方案以检测和/或防止光学探查，(3)开发基于材料和封装的对策以缓解背面攻击，最后(4)评估针对使用商业芯片或具有最先进光学设置的制造原型在硅中进行真实攻击的建议对策。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Today, the explosive demand for modern Integrated Circuits (ICs) and in particular the system-on-chips (SoCs) in different applications from automobiles to military, and critical infrastructures makes their security of paramount concern. With the advancements in packaging and the need for smaller and more power efficient devices, heterogenous integration becomes more attractive but makes the chip more vulnerable from backside. Existing research studies in this area are limited to few attack surfaces with no comprehensive framework. Current countermeasures are incompatible with the conventional IC and SoC design flow and are expensive in terms of both manufacturing cost and design overhead. The project's novelties are in (1) assessing the security vulnerabilities of modern ICs against “contactless optical attacks from backside” with a holistic security taxonomy and quantitative evaluation methods, and (2) providing a framework to develop proper countermeasures against optical probing attacks at circuit-, material- and packaging-levels. The project's broader importance is in different disciplines from electronics to material science for chip designers and students to better understand the correlation between data traffic in IC and the resulting physical signatures that could be used by an attacker to extract sensitive information through new education materials and advanced instrumentations. This project (1) investigates potential security vulnerabilities of modern ICs to backside optical attacks and develop security metrics to identify the vulnerable modules in a device; (2) develops low area and power overhead circuit-based solutions to detect and/or prevent optical probing, (3) develops material and packaging based countermeasures to mitigate the backside attacks, and finally (4) evaluates the proposed countermeasures against real attacks in silicon using commercial chips or fabricated prototypes with state-of-the-art optical setups.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.