Ultra-Low Voltage Reconfigurable FETs in 22nm FDSOI Technology Enabling Dynamic Circuit Obfuscation for Embedded Security

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Yuxuan He - , NaMLab - Nanoelectronic materials laboratory gGmbH (Author)
  • Aniruddh Holemadlu - , Ruhr University Bochum (Author)
  • Niladri Bhattacharjee - , Global Foundries Dresden (Author)
  • Giulio Galderisi - , NaMLab - Nanoelectronic materials laboratory gGmbH (Author)
  • Violetta Sessi - , Global Foundries Dresden (Author)
  • Juan Martinez - , NaMLab - Nanoelectronic materials laboratory gGmbH (Author)
  • Mark Wijvliet - , Ruhr University Bochum (Author)
  • Shubham Rai - , Ruhr University Bochum (Author)
  • Viktor Havel - , NaMLab - Nanoelectronic materials laboratory gGmbH (Author)
  • Peter Baars - , Global Foundries Dresden (Author)
  • Kerstin Ruttloff - , Global Foundries Dresden (Author)
  • Annekathrin Zeun - , Global Foundries Dresden (Author)
  • Konstantin Li - , Global Foundries Dresden (Author)
  • Michael Zier - , Global Foundries Dresden (Author)
  • Fernando Koch - , Global Foundries Dresden (Author)
  • Binit Syamal - , Global Foundries Dresden (Author)
  • Thomas Mikolajick - , Chair of Nanoelectronics, NaMLab - Nanoelectronic materials laboratory gGmbH (Author)
  • Akash Kumar - , Ruhr University Bochum (Author)
  • Jens Trommer - , NaMLab - Nanoelectronic materials laboratory gGmbH (Author)

Abstract

Reconfigurable Field-Effect Transistors are fully CMOS-compatible emerging devices capable of changing between n-type and p-type characteristics during runtime. This inherent polymorphism extends to the logic gate level, enabling circuit obfuscation beyond what can be achieved with traditional CMOS devices. In order to exploit these capabilities, especially for embedded security solutions at the edge, it is crucial that the devices operate at low voltages to minimize power consumption. This work presents the first demonstration of the highly expressive three-independent gate reconfigurable transistor variant operated at 0.8 V. The devices are processed based on the 22nm FDSOI technology of GlobalFoundries and are fully co-integratable with standard CMOS devices. We leverage the self-dual nature of these devices to implement a circuit obfuscation scheme to merge two individual circuits into a single one, thus illustrating a scalable method that can be extended to larger cryptographic engines to effectively mask their functionality from an outside attacker. The functionality of the method is validated by simulating a merged adder/subtractor circuit in Cadence Virtuoso, utilizing a previously developed Verilog-A model of the scaled devices. This work demonstrates the feasibility of RFETs operating at supply voltages as low as 0.8 V with symmetrical P and N on-states, enabling energy-efficient hardware security applications, such as reconfigurable adder/subtractor circuits and polymorphic logic blocks.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Number of pages8
JournalIEEE journal of the Electron Devices Society
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 15 Jan 2026
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0003-3814-0378/work/205334821

Keywords

Keywords

  • 22nm, Dynamic circuit obfuscation, FDSOI, Hardware security, Low-voltage, Reconfigurable Field-Effect Transistors (RFETs)