Enhancing Co-packaging Optics Enabled Silicon Photonics Security Assurance Hardware Fingerprinting

2026-06-25

AI Summary

Silicon photonic integrated circuits are vulnerable to counterfeiting and tampering threats that conventional electronic security measures cannot effectively mitigate. To address this challenge, this work proposes an embedded optical fingerprinting scheme that requires no additional fabrication steps: two-dimensional photonic crystal patterns are integrated into chip density-controlled filler regions, leveraging their resonant characteristics in the visible to near-infrared spectrum to generate unique spectral responses. Using ANSYS Lumerical FDTD simulations, the nanoscale dimensions and spacing of these structures are optimized to precisely engineer narrowband peaks in reflection or absorption spectra, enabling high-resolution, scalable hardware authentication with sub-50-nanometer precision. The approach is fully compatible with standard lithographic processes, significantly enhancing anti-counterfeiting capabilities and supply chain security for silicon photonic chips.

Abstract

Silicon photonics enables integration of optical components using standard semiconductor processes, greatly improving data communication bandwidth and energy efficiency. However, photonics integrated circuits (PICs) face unique security challenges, such as counterfeit or tampering threats, that conventional electronic security methods do not address. We propose a novel hardware fingerprinting technique that embeds two dimensional photonic crystal patterns into the density control filler regions of a PIC. Each PhC pattern is designed to resonate a specific visible to near infrared wavelengths, producing a distinctive optical signature (based on wavelength, polarization, and incident angle) for each device. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulation using ANSYS Lumerical is employed to optimize nanostructure dimensions and spacing so that each device's reflection/absorption spectrum contains unique narrowband peaks. No extra fabrication steps or materials are required beyond standard lithography, keeping costs low. The embedded nanostructures have sub-50nm precision, making forgery extremely difficult. Our method yields a high resolution, scalable fingerprint for silicon photonic chips, enabling cost-effective device authentication and improved supply chain security.

Problem

• silicon photonics
• hardware fingerprinting
• security assurance
• counterfeit detection
• photonic integrated circuits

Innovation

• photonic crystal
• hardware fingerprinting
• silicon photonics
• optical signature
• anti-counterfeiting