Power analysis detectable watermarks for protecting intellectual property

In this paper a method for adding a watermark to the power consumption of intellectual property is presented. The signature can be detected by using Differential Power Analysis, a cryptographic side channel attack that uses statistical techniques to detect register transitions in power consumption data. Details are given on how to calculate the probability of correctly determining whether the watermark is there. The number of samples that will be required to detect the watermark with a given accuracy can also be calculated based on how much of a price the designer is willing to pay in terms of area.