DPA insensitive voltage regulator for contact smart cards

Abstract

An on-chip voltage regulator for contact smart cards in CMOS technology is presented. The proposed regulator protects the supplied system against power analysis attacks using a charge pump architecture to eliminate the power consumption correlation. It generates a 1.55V output from 1.65V to 5.5V input voltage. The circuit has been sized to handle a 50mA load current step with less than 250mV of voltage ripple without external capacitors. Thus, it can be applied in A, B and C classes of smart cards. The presented circuit was designed in a 0.18μm CMOS technology. The core occupies an area of about 0.15mm2, without Pads.