Theory, Synthesis, and Application of Adiabatic and Reversible Logic Circuits for Security Applications

Abstract

Programmable reversible logic is emerging as a prospective logic design style for implementation in modern nanotechnology and quantum computing with minimal impact on circuit heat generation. Adiabatic logic is a design methodology for reversible logic in CMOS where the current flow through the circuit is controlled such that the energy dissipation due to switching and capacitor dissipation is minimized. Production of cost-effective Secure Integrated Chips, such as Smart Cards, requires hardware designers to consider tradeoffs in size, security, and power consumption. In order to design successful security-centric designs, the low-level hardware must contain built-in protection mechanisms to supplement cryptographic algorithms such as AES and Triple DES by preventing side channel attacks, such as Differential Power Analysis (DPA). Dynamic logic obfuscates the output waveforms and the circuit operation, reducing the effectiveness of the DPA attack. In this dissertation, I address theory, synthesis, and application of adiabatic and reversible logic circuits for security applications. First, we present a mathematical proof to demonstrate that reversible logic can be used to design sequential computing structures. Next, a novel algorithm for synthesis of adiabatic circuits in CMOS is presented. This approach is unique because it correlates the offsets in the permutation matrix to the transistors required for synthesis, instead of determining an equivalent circuit and substituting a previously synthesized circuit from a library. Using the ESPRESSO heuristic for minimization of Boolean functions method on each output node in parallel, we optimize the synthesized circuit. It is demonstrated that the algorithm produces a 32.86% improvement over previously synthesized circuit benchmarks. For stronger mitigation of DPA attacks, we propose the implementation of Adiabatic Dynamic Differential Logic for applications in secure IC design. A Performance Adiabatic Dynamic Differential Logic (PADDL) is presented for an implementation in high frequency secure ICs. This method improves the differential power over previous dynamic and differential logic methods by up to 89.65. Then, we present an adiabatic S-box which significantly reduces energy imbalance compared to previous benchmarks. The design is capable of forward encryption and reverse decryption with minimal overhead, allowing for efficient hardware reuse.