Blockchain-Enabled Whitelisting Mechanisms for Enhancing Security in 3D ICs
Gaines Odom, Hardhik Mohanty, Ujjwal Guin, Bhaskar Krishnamachari · 2024
The globalization of the semiconductor supply chain has paved the way for a rapid enhancement in the research and development, and the production of electronic devices. The exponential growth in manufacturing, design, and distribution has given rise to a complex ecosystem where the risk of counterfeit or Trojan-inserted integrated circuits (ICs) becomes significant. As emerging technologies continue to reshape the landscape of the electronics supply chain, addressing the challenges and risks posed by these developments becomes increasingly crucial. The challenge of ensuring security for 2.D/3D ICs, composed of multiple chiplets manufactured globally, is exacerbated by the lack of trust among entities in the semiconductor supply chain. The chiplets that are fabricated at an untrusted location can be tampered with, resulting in the insertion of malicious circuits that may leak secret information to an adversary. This paper presents a conceptual approach that limits the communication capability of an untrusted chiplet using a whitelisting technique inspired by security measures deployed in traditional networks. We also propose to use a logger to capture any communication rule violation that occurs during die-to-die communications across different chiplets. The logger state can be further uploaded to an immutable blockchain ledger for forensics purposes if an attack is identified.