Deep Exploration on Fault Model of Electromagnetic Pulse Attack

The efficient fault injection attack (FIA) technique, electromagnetic pulse attack (EMPA), becomes a severe threat to the security of integrated circuits (ICs). Understanding the fault model of EMPA is necessary to protect ICs against EMPA. This work investigates the fault model of EMPA on digital circuits in depth by exploring its fault behaviors, fault conditions and fault causes. During exploration, a new kind of sampling fault model, called S-sampling fault model, is found. By adding the new finding, the fault models of EMPA can be built, fully covering the combinational and sequential digital circuits, the positive and negative polarity of EM pulse, and the signals processed by the circuits. The investigation is carried out based on the circuit-level simulation, considering the disturbances on the IC power and ground grids caused by EMPA. The insights into the EMPA fault models allow circuit designers to design more efficient countermeasures against EMPA.