News Researchers Can Now Reverse Engineer Entire Chips With X-Ray Technology

[Admin]

Researchers from the U.S. and Switzerland have invented a new non-destructive technique that allows for the imaging of an entire chip, which could be used to identify hidden backdoors in chips or to verify if a chip's design matches the specifications.

Researchers Can Now Reverse Engineer Entire Chips With X-Ray Technology : Read more

 

[martel80]

This is not so simple. After getting the complete transistor + interconnect layout, you would need some kind of synthesis tool in order to guess (interpret) what part of chip serves what high-level function.

 

[mortemas]

Hmmm, maybe shielding the internals of the chip with a layer of Pb would be a good countermeasure

 

[bit_user]

Hmmm, maybe shielding the internals of the chip with a layer of Pb would be a good countermeasure

Some chips are allegedly bonded to their heatspreader with solder. However, I don't know if that ever contains lead, or how much lead you'd actually need to effectively block these x-rays.

I wonder if this can be used for troubleshooting, or to measure things like metal migration.