Integrated Circuits for Nuclear Treaty Verification and for Detection of Nuclear Material
Robust, tamper-proof systems are essential for nuclear-weapons treaty verification and to limit to proliferation of these weapons. We build circuits to reliably and securely detect nuclear isotopes.
Verification of arms control treaties may require information barriers to protect sensitive data acquired during the verification process. These information barriers are commonly implemented in software, but must store and operate on data that are vulnerable to attack and tampering. We built a new Secure Measurement Unit based on a modified pipeline SAR ADC architecture. The idea is to move the information barrier back into the digitization process so that prohibited data is never created. A prototype 65nm CMOS Secure Measurement Unit (SMU) was tested using U-235, U-238, Co-60, Cs-137 and Am-241 sources. The prototype accurately digitized allowable signals but is immune to side-channel attacks on signals within preset forbidden regions.
F. N. Buhler, D. K. Wehe, and M. P. Flynn, “A secure measurement unit for an inspection system used in nuclear arms-control verification,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, December 2020.
F. Buhler, D. Wehe, M. Flynn “A Side Channel Attack Immune Secure Measurement Unit for Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Verification with Built-in Information Barriers” IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, November, 2018.
F. Buhler, D. Wehe, M. Flynn “A Side Channel Attack Immune Secure Measurement Unit for Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Verification with Built-in Information Barriers” IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, November, 2018.