Simulation and analysis of negative-bias temperature instability aging on power analysis attacks

Transistor aging is an important failure mechanism in nanoscale designs and is a growing concern for the reliability of future systems. Transistor aging results in circuit performance degradation over time and the ultimate circuit failure. Among aging mechanisms, Negative-Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI) has become the leading limiting factor of circuit lifetime. While the impact of transistor aging is well understood from the device point of view, very little is known about its impact on security, and in particular on power analysis attack. This paper fills the gap by evaluating the effects on power analysis attack. Our experimental results obtained using PRESENT algorithm show that CPA attacks are not significantly affected by aging, while the successful rate of template attack changes significantly.