EM emission modeling for secure IC design

For some decades now, electromagnetic radiations have not only generated electromagnetic compatibility problems but are a critical threat also for secure IC designers. In fact, these radiations can be collected, with an EM probe, to perform electromagnetic side-channel attacks (EM SCA), in order to retrieve secure data from ICs. Within this context, this paper aims to propose an industrial simulation flow able to reproduce the EM emissions of ICs during the design stage. It also proposes a technique allowing to correctly identify EM leakages prior to fabrication, considering the absence of noise in simulated traces. Finally, attacks performed with horizontal and vertical probes are compared, as well as front-side and back-side analyses, in order to demonstrate that only upper metal layers need to be considered to model the magnetic field captured by an EM probe placed close to the IC surface.