SEMBA: A SEM based acquisition technique for fast invasive Hardware Trojan detection

In this paper, we present how SEMBA, a fast invasive technique for white team Hardware Trojan detection, has been used to differentiate between a maliciously infected integrated circuit and a genuine one. Our methodology is based on the observation of the component´s hardware structure and includes the use of wet etching, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Multiple Image Alignment. Once the Integrated Circuits´ image have been fully reconstructed, image processing allows to detect the presence of the Hardware Trojan (HT). SEMBA is a fully automated approach with a 100% success rate, detecting any `transistor-size´ HTs and requiring `affordable´ resources and time.