Laser attacks on integrated circuits: from CMOS to FD-SOI

Abstract : The use of a laser as a means to inject errors during the computations of a secure integrated circuit (IC) for the purpose of retrieving secret data was first reported in 2002. Since then, a lot of research work, mainly experimental, has been carried out to study this threat. This paper reports research conducted, in the framework of the french national project LIESSE, to obtain an electrical model of the laser effects on CMOS ICs. Based on simulation, a first model permitted us to draw the laser sensitivity map of a SRAM cell. It demonstrates a very close correlation with experimental measures. We also introduce the preliminary results we gathered to build a similar electrical model for FD-SOI circuits. FD-SOI technology is expected to be less sensitive to laser than CMOS.