Pass Gate Based Threshold Voltage Defined Logic Family with Resilience Against Hardware Attacks

Abstract

<p>Electronic counterfeiting is a major source of concern from a security and reliability standpoint. For digital integrated circuits (ICs), reverse engineering can reveal the design and functionality of the circuit. A solution to this problem is to leverage different threshold voltage (VT) transistors which are indistinguishable in the layout. This allows for a single circuit that utilizes these transistors to be used for Boolean functions and thus makes the design not susceptible to reverse engineering. Side channel attacks derive the function of the IC while the device is in operation. This class of attacks measures and compares the variation in the performance parameters such as time delay and current consumption. The proposed pass gate-based threshold voltage defined (PG-TVD) logic family when compared to the enhanced threshold voltage defined logic families (E-TVD) reduces the average variation by almost an order of magnitude; from 7.06% down to 0.75%. The PG-TVD logic family when compared to the Threshold Voltage Defined (TVD) Logic Family reduces the area by 25%, current consumption by 24%, and time delay by 20%. </p>