Research

Background: When ADC is converting a confidential analog signal, it may leak side-channel information that can be used to recover the secret signal. How to prevent ADC from leaking such secret on silicon is an active research topic. We are interested in:

1. How to benchmark side-channel security and security-overhead tradeoff for ADC?

2. More secure ADC designs with less power, performance, and area (PPA) overhead

Preliminary Work: [TechRxiv] 

Why it matters: Assuming an attacker can infer if you are at home or not by hacking your energy meter, would you be worried?   

Background: Low Orbit Earth (LEO) and deep space present a very harsh environment for microelectronics to operate due to the "short-term" Single-Event Effects (SEE) and "long-term" Total Ionizing Dosage (TID).  Our work seeks to Radiation Harden Analog / Mixed-Signal circuit building blocks By Design (RHBD) instead of relying on specialized processes.

The Bindra comparator [1] is known for its energy-efficiency. When used in a SAR ADC, it achieved the lowest Walden Figure of Merit [2, 3]. However, the reliable of such comparator in space application is unknown. This study intended to study the potential of adapting the best-performing, energy-efficient terrestrial ADCs to space applications and ways to mitigate its single-event vulnerabilities. 

Results: [IEEE Xplore]

Why it matters: Space science equipment needs highly reliable ADCs to measure particles, among others.  

References: [1] Bindra18JSSC, [2] Bindra17VLSI, [3] ADC survey.

Sponsor: NASA Oklahoma EPSCoR office, Research Initiation Grant (RIG)