• With the continuous push towards scaling of Integrated Circuits (ICs), production costs have been correspondingly increasing leading more companies to outsource the fabrication of IC chips. Consequently, there is a growing concern about the security of such chips. Hardware Trojan (HT) interstion is one type of hardware attack where HTs are inserted during fabrication step, and they cannot be easily detected using traditional electrical methods.

• My project is to embed optical nanoantennas in each standard cell such that each cell has a unique optical signature which allows us to detect HTs using backside optical imaging . This is because one will need to move or replace standard cells to add an HT which would change the optical signature of the design.

Project Outcomes