Computer Vision for Hardware Trojan Detection on a PCB Using Siamese Neural Network

With advances in technology Hardware Trojan (HT) attacks on printed circuit boards (PCB) are becoming more sophisticated and the need for more effective HT detection methods is becoming crucial. Automated visual inspection (AVI) is one of the most promising solutions in detecting malicious implants on a PCB. It is non-destructive, effective in testing PCBs on an industrial scale, demands minimum human involvement, and can potentially identify malicious inclusions and modifications on PCBs at all stages of production and thereafter. In recent years, machine learning algorithms have been successfully applied, significantly improving the effectiveness of AVI methodologies. In this paper, an AVI methodology is proposed for detecting HTs on a PCB, using input data from a low-cost digital optical camera. It is based on a combination of conventional computer vision techniques and a dual tower Siamese Neural Network (SNN), modelled in a three stage pipeline. Further, a dataset of PCB images has been developed in a controlled environment of a photographic tent. The results show that the methodology has an average 95.6% classification accuracy for PCBs with HT inclusions with surface area between 4 mm(2) and 280 mm(2).