Analyzing security vulnerabilities of three-dimensional integrated circuits

Abstract

Despite the well-understood advantages over 2D ICs, three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D ICs) introduce unique and unexplored challenges on managing hardware security. Existing works leverage the 3D structure to address the security concerns in 2D ICs, rather than studying the security threats originated from the 3D integration itself. To fill in this gap, this work analyzes new security threats on 3D ICs by examining five attack scenarios in the supply chain of 3D chips. With special emphasis on inter-die communication, we first model three types of Through Silicon Via (TSV) based hardware Trojans. Our case studies show that the impact of TSV-based Trojans on circuit power and delay can be significant enough to sabotage the integrity and security of 3D ICs. Furthermore, we envision that cross-tier hardware Trojan may become a unique hardware Trojan in 3D ICs to cause bandwidth depletion or information leakage among the tiers.