Securing CMOS Integrated Circuits Using Nano-antenna-Based Optical Watermarks

SPRING 2015 RESEARCH INCUBATION AWARDEE 

Ajay Joshi (Electrical & Computer Engineering, College of Engineering)

Today CMOS integrated circuits (ICs) are pervasively used in practically all consumer electronics, critical defense technologies and municipal support systems such as power and water supply services. At the same time, the supply chain and development cycle of IC chips have become increasingly fragmented and global. As a result, the industry now faces a myriad of threats including malicious tampering, hacking and insertion of Trojan horses in hardware. To address the emerging hardware threat, our work applies cutting edge optical imaging techniques and computational processing methods that enable direct, rapid and low-cost detection of hardware Trojans. We have developed a methodology that is based on this approach and validated it through numerical modeling. The funds provided by Hariri enable us to build on this work and ultimately demonstrate our techniques in real chips.

In addition to enabling this specific technical outcome, we are developing new collaborations with researchers working at the higher layers of the design hierarchy (architectures, OS, networks and applications) in the security and computational domains. Our long term vision is to establish a large cross-layer security program at BU by building a multifaceted team consisting of experts in a diverse range of fields including nanophotonics, VLSI design, cryptography, cybersecurity and machine learning.

Our team is currently comprised of labs in the BU Photonics Center and includes Professors Ajay Joshi, Selim Ünlü and Bennett Goldberg and Dr. Ronen Adato. We are closely working with researchers from other related fields to build an ecosystem that can provide end-to-end security solutions for computing systems.

This work is funded by a Hariri Research Award made in June, 2015.