Effective RTL locking for obfuscation of loop-based designs
Y. -C. Chen, S.-H. Huang · IET conference proceedings. · 2024
RTL Locking is a design technique that aims to enhance hardware security by obfuscating the circuit semantics. Various methods for RTL locking have been proposed in prior literature. However, when applied simultaneously to loop-based designs, these methods may not effectively improve security due to semantic conflicts. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of different combinations of methods in light of this observation. Additionally, we conduct a detailed analysis of the design overhead associated with feasible method combinations. The research findings presented in this paper can serve as guidelines for the design of RTL loop hardware obfuscation.