An integrated current flattening module for embedded cryptosystems

In embedded cryptosystems, the variation of current or power consumption might be the point of attack on confidentiality because of the dependency of power consumption on the data and algorithms. This paper presents a real-time current flattening module that controls dynamically the power consumption of a cryptosystem. The module together with specialized cryptographic hardware can be integrated on the same chip. In this way, the output current of the cryptographic system has little discernable information for a side-channel attack. The real-time current flattening module is designed in this paper using 0.18 μm CMOS technology and operates at 1.8 V power supply.