Embedded Instruments

Embedded, high-resolution, on-chip instrumentation (EI) can be used to measure path delays, voltage drops and even voltage transients, for applications to manufacturing test, design for manufacturability and hardware security and trust. IC-Safety uses EI as a core component of its PUFs, where EI is used to obtain high-resolution measurements of path delays and voltage drops. The EI measurements can then be used in a data post-processing algorithm to calibrate for adverse environmental effects and undesirable sources of process variation, as a means of isolating and enhancing the level of entropy available to PUFs for encryption key and authentication bitstring generation. Beyond PUFs, EI can be used for detecting malicious circuits, a.k.a. hardware Trojans, for detecting invasive probing attacks designed to inject faults or steal confidential information, for supply chain provenance, secure boot and security and trust functions within 3D packaging infrastructures.