Chapter 6
Reverse Engineering of Microcircuits
As demonstrated in the previous chapter, one of the most widely used methods
of identification of hardware Trojans in microcircuits is Reverse Engineering. This
section of the book is one of the largest in terms of information contents; this is due
to the fact that the authors intended this section to be usable as a practical manual
for RE application.
The beginning of this section contains an overview of the reasons for the emergence and the history of development of this direction, terms, and definitions, and
features of its use to ensure protection of intellectual property rights.
After that, a consistent and detailed description of all basic stages of implementation of this method with multiple specific examples is given.
At first, a brief overview of implementation of the RE method for an electronic
device (exemplified by a mobile phone) is given, followed by the sequence of RE
stages for microcircuits.
The section examines the stages of recovering an electrical circuit from the
topology, features of implementation of frame-by-frame alignment of photographed
topology fragments, two adjacent frames, images of topology fragments, features of
the process of aligning a group of image frames, and specific methods of improving
the quality of the obtained images, as well as the method of automating the process
of connection (tracing) of recovered connections between elements, and much more.
Unlike most earlier publications dedicated to RE-related problems, this section
is the first to contain multiple methods and practical recommendations for implementing stages of preparation of submicron mircocircuit samples for their further
study using the methods of scanning electronic microscopy and with the help of electrophysical analysis methods. RE specialists are well aware of the fact that the quality
of final analysis results largely depends on proper execution of such preparatory
operations.
The chapter concludes with two sections dedicated to an overview of the methods
of countering reverse engineering of microcircuits that are most commonly found
in literature. This overview contains classification of countering methods, examination of specific technological, circuitry-based and constructive countering methods,
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Belous and V. Saladukha, Viruses, Hardware and Software Trojans,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47218-4_6
503
Reverse Engineering of Microcircuits
As demonstrated in the previous chapter, one of the most widely used methods
of identification of hardware Trojans in microcircuits is Reverse Engineering. This
section of the book is one of the largest in terms of information contents; this is due
to the fact that the authors intended this section to be usable as a practical manual
for RE application.
The beginning of this section contains an overview of the reasons for the emergence and the history of development of this direction, terms, and definitions, and
features of its use to ensure protection of intellectual property rights.
After that, a consistent and detailed description of all basic stages of implementation of this method with multiple specific examples is given.
At first, a brief overview of implementation of the RE method for an electronic
device (exemplified by a mobile phone) is given, followed by the sequence of RE
stages for microcircuits.
The section examines the stages of recovering an electrical circuit from the
topology, features of implementation of frame-by-frame alignment of photographed
topology fragments, two adjacent frames, images of topology fragments, features of
the process of aligning a group of image frames, and specific methods of improving
the quality of the obtained images, as well as the method of automating the process
of connection (tracing) of recovered connections between elements, and much more.
Unlike most earlier publications dedicated to RE-related problems, this section
is the first to contain multiple methods and practical recommendations for implementing stages of preparation of submicron mircocircuit samples for their further
study using the methods of scanning electronic microscopy and with the help of electrophysical analysis methods. RE specialists are well aware of the fact that the quality
of final analysis results largely depends on proper execution of such preparatory
operations.
The chapter concludes with two sections dedicated to an overview of the methods
of countering reverse engineering of microcircuits that are most commonly found
in literature. This overview contains classification of countering methods, examination of specific technological, circuitry-based and constructive countering methods,
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Belous and V. Saladukha, Viruses, Hardware and Software Trojans,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47218-4_6
503