Huang: IRIS (Infra-Red, in situ) Project Updates

Andrew 'bunnie' Huang provides an update onhis IRIS infrared chip-scanning project as the starting point for adetailed summary on how chip customers can detect forgeries andmodifications in general.

The technique works because although silicon looks opaque atvisible light, it is transparent starting at near-infraredwavelengths (roughly 1000 nm and longer). Today's commodity opticsand CMOS cameras are actually capable of working with lights atthis wavelength; thus, IRIS is a low-cost and effective techniquefor confirming the construction of chips down to block level. Forexample, IRIS can readily help determine if a chip has the correctamount of RAM, number of CPU cores, peripherals, bond pads,etc. This level of verification would be sufficient to deter mostcounterfeits or substitutions.