Enhancing Thermal Security of 3D-SiP Systems through Thermal Digital Twin (TDT)

Thermal attacks targeting large-scale integrated microsystems, such as three-dimensional package systems (3D-SiP), exploit thermal fluctuations to compromise their security. These attacks can lead to excessive thermal dissipation, causing hardware failures or enabling the extraction of sensitive information such as cryptographic keys by analyzing heating and cooling patterns. Therefore, the design of integrated microsystems must integrate thermal management and security to prevent vulnerabilities to such attacks. In this article, we propose an innovative approach to improve the prediction of system-in-package (SiP) thermal dynamics by developing a thermal digital twin (TDT) using COMSOL Multiphysics software. This method accurately replicates the thermal behaviors of an existing physical system, specifically the Xilinx SPARTAN-3E field-programmable gate array (FPGA) board, using thermal data collected by the Gradient Direction Sensor (GDS) technology integrated into the Xilinx FPGA. Our TDT offers a cutting-edge solution for monitoring and examining thermal fluxes in 3D-SiPs, representing a significant advancement in the thermal regulation of these microsystems and implicitly enhancing their thermal security.