Electronic Design Tracking Patterns for Tamper Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
The manufacturing process of electronic designs, such as IC chips, often involves sharing and modifying the designs among multiple parties, leading to a lack of visibility and potential misuse or tampering, as the original design owner may not be aware of how their design is used, modified, or distributed.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that generates unique, deterministic tracking patterns within the design layout, which can be used to trace and detect any tampering or misuse at various stages of the design and manufacturing process, including layout generation, post-design, and post-manufacturing, by using a secret key to create pattern hashes that are stored and verified throughout the production chain.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the electronic design is shared among multiple parties for manufacturing and distribution, then the productivity and adaptability of the manufacturing process is improved, but the reliability and security of the design are worsened due to lack of visibility and potential tampering
Solution Approach 1:
The system embeds tracking patterns and cryptographic signatures into the electronic design layout before manufacturing begins. These patterns are inserted at designated locations within the design, creating a permanent traceable record that travels through the entire manufacturing and distribution chain, enabling detection of any unauthorized modifications or tampering.
Solution Approach 2:
The tracking patterns serve as an intermediary mechanism between the design owner and multiple manufacturing parties. These patterns act as a trusted mediator that provides visibility and verification capabilities across the distributed manufacturing ecosystem, allowing the design owner to track and verify the design at each stage without directly controlling all parties.
2Measurement precision
If tracking patterns are embedded in the design layout, then the ability to detect tampering is improved, but the device complexity and manufacturing process complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The tracking patterns are inserted at specific designated locations within the electronic design layout rather than throughout the entire design. Each pattern is placed locally at predetermined positions, making the complexity localized and manageable while maintaining overall design functionality. The patterns are confined to specific regions and do not interfere with the core design elements.
3Reliability
If cryptographic signatures and pattern hashes are used for verification, then the reliability of design verification is improved, but the use of energy and computational resources increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and separates the verification functionality from the main manufacturing and distribution processes. The tracking patterns and cryptographic signatures are embedded once during design creation, and subsequent verification involves simple pattern matching and hash comparison operations rather than full cryptographic verification, reducing computational energy requirements at each stage.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are method(s), system(s), and article(s) of manufacture for implementing an approach to facilitate traceability and tamper detection of electronic designs. This approach allows for tracing and tamper detection at any stage of design and manufacturing, such as during layout generation, post-design, post-mask, and post manufacturing of the electronic designs.