Dual Detection of Heating and Photocurrent attacks (DDHP) Sensor using Hybrid CMOS/STT-MRAM

Abstract

Integrated Circuits (ICs) have to be protected against threatening environmental radiations and malicious perturbations. A large panel of countermeasures has been developed to answer the needs of this challenging field. The Bulk Built-In Current Sensor (BBICS) is a highly reliable solution for the detection of these abnormal transient radiations that could induce a transient current in the Front-End of Line (FEoL). This paper proposes an innovative sensor based on the BBICS associated to the power-efficient emerging non-volatile memory Spin Transfer Torque Magnetic Random Access Memory (STT-MRAM). The goal of this security solution is to detect both possible photoelectrical laser injections and thermal perturbations. Thus, the proposed architecture designated by Dual Detection of Heating and Photocurrent attacks (DDHP) highlights a dual detection efficiency, on the CMOS circuitry and on the Back-End of Line (BEoL) STT-MRAM technology.

Heavy-Ion Irradiation Effects on Advanced Perpendicular Anisotropy Spin-Transfer Torque Magnetic Tunnel Junction

“…Localized charges are generated in the DUT by single photon absorption. So far, we do not expect to have any SEU induced by thermal effect since, in PA-MTJ this kind of phenomena are triggered by energy in the order of µJ[14], a value much higher than the range used by the laser facility. The second radiation experiment will be performed at the UCL Cyclotron (Université Catholique de Louvain), of Louvain-la-Neuve.…”