Security Threats and Countermeasures in Three-Dimensional Integrated Circuits

Existing works on Three-dimensional (3D) hardware security focus on leveraging the unique 3D characteristics to address the supply chain attacks that exist in 2D design. However, 3D ICs introduce specific and unexplored challenges as well as new opportunities for managing hardware security. In this paper, we analyze new security threats unique to 3D ICs. The corresponding attack models are summarized for future research. Furthermore, existing representative countermeasures, including split manufacturing, camouflaging, transistor locking, techniques against thermal signal based side-channel attacks, and network-on-chip based shielding plane (NoCSIP) for different hardware threats are reviewed and categorized. Moreover, preliminary countermeasures are proposed to thwart TSV-based hardware Trojan insertion attacks.