The state-of-the-art in semiconductor reverse engineering

• Published in: 2011 48th ACM/EDAC/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC) pp. 333 - 338
• Main Authors: Torrance, Randy, James, Dick
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY, USA ACM 05.06.2011; IEEE
• Series: ACM Conferences
• Subjects: Circuit extraction; Hacking; Hardware; IC Analysis; Integrated circuits; Patents Security; Reverse engineering; Scanning electron microscopy; Security and privacy > Cryptography > Cryptanalysis and other attacks; Security and privacy > Intrusion/anomaly detection and malware mitigation; Social and professional topics > Computing > technology policy > Computer crime; Social and professional topics > Computing > technology policy > Intellectual property > Patents; Software; Tamper Resistance; Transistors; tamper resistance; reverse engineering; hacking; patents security; IC analysis; circuit extraction
• ISBN: 1450306365; 9781450306362
• ISSN: 0738-100X
• DOI: 10.1145/2024724.2024805

This presentation gives an overview of the place of reverse engineering (RE) in the semiconductor industry, and the techniques used to obtain information from semiconductor products. The continuous drive of Moore's law to increase the integration level of silicon chips has presented major challenges to the reverse engineer, obsolescing simple teardowns, and demanding the adoption of new and more sophisticated technology to analyze chips. Hardware encryption embedded in chips adds a whole other level of difficulty to IC analysis, but does not necessarily keep the reverse engineer out. This paper discusses the techniques used for system-level analysis, both hardware and software; process analysis, looking at the materials and processes used to create the chip; and circuit extraction, taking the chip down to the transistor level, and working back up through the interconnects to create schematics.