Intentional fault injection into microprocessor hardware is an important threat to the embedded computers and microcontrollers that secure the nation's information technology infrastructure. Virginia Tech's FAME project develops a methodology to defend micro-controllers against malicious fault injection. The methodology is being validated with test chips which are subjected to an elaborate tamper-sensitivity analysis. The photo shows a test board used to support this analysis by enabling precise control of the operating conditions of the test chip.

Credit: Photo courtesy of Jim Stroup, Virginia Tech

An image of DC-DC converter chips that were validated and tested in the laboratory using specially optimized test stimuli. The histograms on the display terminal show the performance specifications of a set of selected devices that were tested. Such tests that check for multiple performance specifications of a device under test (DUT) using a single test application are suitable for detecting hardware Trojans in mixed-signal devices.

Credit: B. Muldrey, S. Deyati and A. Chatterjee, School of ECE, Georgia Institute of Technology.