🤖 AI Summary
This work proposes a novel hardware security paradigm based on nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) to address escalating threats in semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging, including hardware tampering, counterfeiting, and supply chain attacks. By harnessing the intrinsic mechanical unpredictability of NEMS and leveraging nanofabrication process variations as security features, the approach innovatively integrates physical unclonable functions (PUFs), shape-memory materials, resonant fingerprinting, and physically locked architectures. The resulting device-level security primitive offers strong resistance to reverse engineering and side-channel attacks while maintaining low power consumption. Designed for seamless integration into standard semiconductor fabrication processes, the solution demonstrates high robustness and scalability, showing significant protective efficacy for applications in defense, aerospace, critical infrastructure, and consumer electronics.
📝 Abstract
As hardware security threats escalate across semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging, there is a growing need for novel physical mechanisms to counter sophisticated attacks such as tampering, counterfeiting, and supply chain infiltration. This paper presents Nanoelectromechanical Systems (NEMS) as an emerging class of hardware security primitives that enable physical assurance, tamper detection, and authentication at the device level. Leveraging mechanisms such as NEMS-based Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs), shape memory materials, resonance-based fingerprints, and physical unlocking architectures, these systems offer enhanced resilience to reverse engineering, side-channel attacks, and environmental degradation. By harnessing mechanical unpredictability and fabrication-induced nanoscale variability, NEMS technologies introduce a physically robust and low-power alternative to conventional digital security methods. Their seamless integration into standard semiconductor workflows paves the way for scalable, verifiable, and secure solutions across defense, aerospace, critical infrastructure, and consumer electronics.