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Practical Partial Hardware Reverse Engineering Analysis

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Abstract

Reverse engineering typically requires expensive equipment, skilled technicians, time, a cross section of the component to be sliced out, and a dedicated reconstruction software. In this paper, we present a low-cost alternative, combining fast frontside sample preparation, electron microscopy imaging, error-free standard cell recognition, as well as within and between-die Standard Cell Statistical Analysis (SCSA). Step-by-step, we depict the process to access the transistor's drain/source area; to acquire the full area of a single chip layer; to adapt pattern recognition for standard cells and to analyze the standard cell width, local / global location and occurrences number. The inner workings of each step are accompagnied by results on 45-65nm FCBGA devices enabling to locate specific areas (e.g. registers, hardware accelerator). We particularly point out the importance of such design information extraction for local fault injection and hardware assurance. The primary goal is to analyse how much design information of a complex integrated circuit can be retrieved with minimal costs and without outsourcing.

Description

Keywords

40 Engineering, 4008 Electrical Engineering

Journal Title

Journal of Hardware and Systems Security

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2509-3428
2509-3436

Volume Title

4

Publisher

Springer

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Isaac Newton Trust (17.08(b))
Leverhulme Trust (unknown)