Contemporary integrated circuits are designed and manufactured in a globalized environment leading to concerns of piracy, overproduction and counterfeiting. One class of techniques to combat these threats is logic encryption. Logic encryption modifies an IC design such that it operates correctly only when a set of newly introduced inputs, called key inputs, are set to the correct values. In this paper, we use algorithms based on satisfiability checking (SAT) to investigate the security of logic encryption. We present a SAT-based algorithm which allows an attacker to “decrypt” an encrypted netlist using a small number of carefully-selected input patterns and their corresponding output observations. We also present a “partial-break” algorithm that can reveal some of the key inputs even when the attack is not fully successful. We conduct a thorough evaluation of our attack by examining six proposals for logic encryption from the literature. We find that all of these are vulnerable to our attack. Among the 441 encrypted circuits we examined, we were able to decrypt 418 (95%). We discuss the strengths and limitations of our attack and suggest directions that may lead to improved logic encryption algorithms.

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Evaluating the security of logic encryption algorithms

As the electronic component supply chain grows more complex due to globalization, with parts coming from a diverse set of suppliers, counterfeit electronics have become a major challenge that calls for immediate solutions. Currently, there are a few standards and programs available that address the testing for such counterfeit parts. However, not enough research has yet addressed the detection and avoidance of all counterfeit partsVrecycled, remarked, overproduced, cloned, out-of-spec/defective, and forged documentationVcurrently infiltrating the electronic component supply chain. Even if they work initially, all these parts may have reduced lifetime and pose reliability risks. In this tutorial, we will provide a review of some of the existing counterfeit detection and avoidance methods. We will also discuss the challenges ahead for im- plementing these methods, as well as the development of new detection and avoidance mechanisms.

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Counterfeit Integrated Circuits: A Rising Threat in the Global Semiconductor Supply Chain

While the quality literature abounds with prescriptions for how quality should be managed, no one has proposed an organization-theory explanation for how quality is managed in organizations. This paper proposes a system-structural model of quality management that relates organizational quality context, actual quality management, ideal quality management, and quality performance. The relationships between organizational quality context and actual and ideal quality management are investigated using data collected from 152 managers from 77 business units of 20 manufacturing and service companies. A previously reported instrument is used to measure managers' perceptions of ideal and actual quality management in terms of eight critical factors including product/service design, training, employee relations, and top management leadership. Several measures are used to characterize organizational quality context including company type, company size, degree of competition, and corporate support for quality. The results indicate that organizational quality context influences managers' perceptions of both ideal and actual quality management. This suggests that knowledge of organizational quality context is useful for explaining and predicting quality management practice. Important contextual variables are corporate support for quality, past quality performance, managerial knowledge, and the extent of external quality demands.

The effects of organizational context on quality management: An empirical investigation

The counterfeiting of goods has important economic implications and is also a threat to health and security. Incorporating anti-counterfeiting tags with physical unclonable functions (PUFs) into products is a promising solution for their authentication. PUFs are unique random physical patterns of taggants that cannot be copied and must be fabricated by a stochastic process that affords a large number of robust PUF tags. A PUF tag has a physical pattern that, if read with an appropriate analytical tool, can be recorded and stored. The PUF tag is then the ‘key’, whereas the stored pattern is the ‘lock’. This combination forms PUF keys that provide unbreakable encryption and combat counterfeiting. The stochastic assembly of physical patterns made from taggants exhibiting particular molecular properties is thus an excellent approach to designing new PUF keys. The counterfeiting of goods has economic implications and is a threat to health and security. One promising solution for product authentication is the incorporation of physical unclonable functions. This Review delineates how stochastic chemical processes can afford unique anti-counterfeiting tags that cannot be reproduced.

Physical unclonable functions generated through chemical methods for anti-counterfeiting

In the horizontal semiconductor business model where the designer's intellectual property (IP) is transparent to foundry and to other entities on the production chain, integrated circuits (ICs) overbuilding and IP piracy are prevalent problems. Active metering is a suite of methods enabling the designers to control their chips postfabrication. We provide a comprehensive description of the first known active hardware metering method and introduce new formal security proofs. The active metering method uniquely and automatically locks each IC upon manufacturing, such that the IP rights owner is the only entity that can provide the specific key to unlock or otherwise control each chip. The IC control mechanism exploits: 1) the functional description of the design, and 2) unique and unclonable IC identifiers. The locks are embedded by modifying the structure of the hardware computation model, in the form of a finite state machine (FSM). We show that for each IC hiding the locking states within the modified FSM structure can be constructed as an instance of a general output multipoint function that can be provably efficiently obfuscated. The hidden locks within the FSM may also be used for remote enabling and disabling of chips by the IP rights owner during the IC's normal operation. An automatic synthesis method for low overhead hardware implementation is devised. Attacks and countermeasures are addressed. Experimental evaluations demonstrate the low overhead of the method. Proof-of-concept implementation on the H.264 MPEG decoder automatically synthesized on a Xilinix Virtex-5 field-programmable gate array (FPGA) further shows the practicality, security, and the low overhead of the new method.

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Provably Secure Active IC Metering Techniques for Piracy Avoidance and Digital Rights Management

This paper discusses the growing concern over the counterfeiting of electronics components and systems. Three key factors are identified as the root cause of this problem: the shift of manufacturing to China where intellectual property laws are not strictly enforced and supply chains are convoluted; the growing sophistication of technology that enables cheaper and more convincing fakes; and the rise of the Internet as a marketplace, allowing buyers and sellers make fast trades without ever meeting face to face. As many companies are learning the hard way, counterfeiting requires a constant, deliberate, and multifaceted effort, vigorous monitoring of potential trouble spots, and judicious use of anticounterfeiting technologies.

Bogus: electronic manufacturing and consumers confront a rising tide of counterfeit electronics

Purpose – This paper seeks to introduce a set of key practices that can be used to assess whether an organization has the ability to design, develop and manufacture reliable electronic products.Design/methodology/approach – The ability to design, develop and manufacture reliable electronic products is defined in the paper in terms of a reliability capability maturity model, which is a measure of the practices within an organization that contribute to the reliability of the final product, and the effectiveness of these practices in meeting the reliability requirements of customers.Findings – The paper presents a procedure for evaluating and benchmarking reliability capability. Criteria for assigning different capability maturity levels are presented. The paper also presents a case study corresponding to reliability capability benchmarking of an electronics company.Originality/value – The paper provides a set of practices for evaluating and benchmarking reliability capability.

Using a reliability capability maturity model to benchmark electronics companies

Purpose – Reliability capability is a measure of the practices within an organization that contributes to the reliability of the final product and the effectiveness of these practices in meeting the reliability requirements of customers. The purpose of this paper is to propose a model for evaluating the reliability capability of electronics manufacturers.Design/methodology/approach – A survey methodology and statistical methods based on multivariate correlational analysis were used to validate the model theoretically.Findings – The result of the analysis is a list and ranking of tasks that are critical to the development of reliable electronics products.Originality/value – The paper presents a generic model for evaluating both in‐house reliability practices and those of suppliers to identify areas for improvement and for evaluating improvements over time.

https://www.smtnet.com/library/files/upload/Reliability-capability-models.pdf

Validation of reliability capability evaluation model using a quantitative assessment process

The globalisation of supply chains has made electronics manufacturers dependent upon worldwide suppliers who provide them with parts or subassemblies. Currently, many manufacturers have to wait until they get the products to assess if they are reliable. This can be an expensive iterative process. As an alternative, it is necessary to define what key processes should comprise the product and process development efforts of suppliers to assure customers that they can supply reliable products. Identification of these key processes can help manufacturers to assess their potential suppliers and/or suppliers to assess themselves. This paper presents a set of key processes and practices that can be used as benchmarks to assess whether an organization has the ability to design, develop and manufacture reliable electronic products. It defines this ability as the reliability capability of an organization.Copyright © 2003 by ASME

Auditing the Reliability Capability of Electronics Manufacturers

The oil and gas well electronics industry is a low volume industry in which the development and the operating life cycles of the electronic products used is considerably longer than those of the commonly available commercial parts used to build them. Oil and gas well electronic systems, especially the ones that are used for permanent monitoring of oil wells are required to function reliably at all times throughout the entire life of an oilwell. This gives rise to special requirements for the electronics used in this industry. Guaranteed reliability under high stress operating requirements over longer life cycle profiles necessitates the use of special design, qualification and testing techniques and quality controls. All these factors create considerable risks for the suppliers and manufacturers of oil and gas well electronics. This paper presents a study of the factors that lead to risks, which manufacturers and suppliers of oil and gas well electronics must address while developing products for use in the well completion and continuous monitoring operations. A comparison with other low-volume electronic industries is provided.

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Sanjay Tiku

Papers

Bogus: electronic manufacturing and consumers confront a rising tide of counterfeit electronics

Using a reliability capability maturity model to benchmark electronics companies

Validation of reliability capability evaluation model using a quantitative assessment process

Auditing the Reliability Capability of Electronics Manufacturers

Risk Factors in Oil and Gas Well Electronics Compared to Other Electronic Industries