Side-Channel-Aware Place and Route for Power Signature Masking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Electronic circuit designs are vulnerable to side channel analysis attacks, which exploit power consumption and electromagnetic radiation patterns to infer sensitive information, and existing design automation tools lack effective mechanisms to mitigate these attacks.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating side channel aware modules into electronic design automation (EDA) tools for power planning, placement, and routing to distribute power sources and optimize cell placement and routing lengths, thereby masking power consumption and electromagnetic radiation patterns.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If distributed power sources and switching elements are added to mask power consumption, then security against side channel attacks is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The power delivery network is segmented into multiple distributed power sources instead of a single centralized source. Each power source is independently controllable through switching elements, allowing selective powering of circuit regions to mask power consumption patterns and prevent side channel analysis attacks.
Solution Approach 2:
Switching elements are introduced as intermediary components between the power sources and the circuit blocks. These switches act as mediators that can dynamically connect or disconnect power supply to specific regions, enabling controlled power consumption masking without directly modifying the core circuit logic.
2Reliability
If routing length is optimized to mask power consumption, then security against side channel attacks is improved, but use of energy increases
Solution Approach 1:
Different routing paths are designed with different length characteristics for different circuit blocks. The routing optimization is applied locally to specific regions rather than uniformly across the entire chip, allowing selective masking of power consumption in critical areas while minimizing energy overhead in non-critical areas.
Data Source
AI summary
A power planning phase module, a placement phase module, and a routing phase module are provided that can replace, supplement, or enhance existing electronic design automation (EDA) software tools. The power planning phase module adds distributed power sources and a network of switching elements to the power frame or ring assigned to regions of a chip (that may be identified during a floor planning stage). The placement phase module optimizes a number and type of cells attached to each power source of the distributed power sources already added or to be added during the power planning phase. The routing phase module optimizes routing length to, for example, mask power consumption.