Equivalent circuit modeling of cryptographic integrated circuit for information security design

In this study, equivalent circuit modeling was examined to develop a method to evaluate cryptographic systems before fabrication. An equivalent circuit model of a cryptographic FPGA in which an advanced encryption standard (AES) algorithm had been implemented was determined from experimental measurements under the initial configuration of a power distribution network (PDN) of the FPGA. The model was implemented into a commercial analog circuit simulator, and power traces due to the simultaneous switching noise current were estimated under three different PDN configurations in which a decoupling circuit was inserted into the PDN as an on-board countermeasure. Estimated power traces were analyzed statistically by the correlation power analysis method to obtain correlation values, a major security index of AES. Variation of the correlation values with changes in decoupling configuration agreed with the corresponding experimental results. This means that the security of cryptographic devices against side-channel attacks can be evaluated by using the equivalent circuit model before fabrication.