Soitec and CEA Announce Breakthrough in Automotive Cybersecurity with FD-SOI Technology
Soitec and the CEA have unveiled the results of joint research demonstrating the benefits of FD-SOI technology in enhancing the security of electronic chips in the automotive sector.
Enhanced Security against Fault Injection Attacks
According to the press release, the increase in electronic components in vehicles has heightened the stakes in cybersecurity, particularly against so-called fault injection attacks. The research conducted by Soitec and the CEA shows that Fully Depleted Silicon-On-Insulator (FD-SOI) technology offers increased resistance to such attacks, especially those conducted by laser pulses. Experiments carried out in the CEA-Leti laboratories, in partnership with Soitec, revealed that FD-SOI (22FDX version) is up to one hundred fifty times more difficult to compromise than bulk silicon in 28-nanometer technology. This technology requires a significantly higher laser power to induce a fault, thereby reducing the possibilities for intrusion and the frequency of successful attacks on these chips.
Compliance with Automotive Security Standards
The results presented emphasize that the robustness of FD-SOI is in line with current security standards for the automotive industry, particularly the ISO/SAE 21434 standard that governs cybersecurity in the sector. The press release specifies that FD-SOI technology could notably be used to manufacture 'reference chips' tasked with storing software encryption keys within vehicles, a use deemed critical for compliance with current and future regulatory requirements.
Exploring New Avenues for Innovation
Beyond the immediate results, the press release mentions the exploration of new innovation avenues on FD-SOI substrates, such as the integration of buried optical barriers, security sensors, and unclonable physical unclonable functions (PUFs). These developments could eventually transform the semiconductor wafer into an active security device. Both partners emphasize the role that substrate engineering could play in hardware security and digital trust, particularly at a time when connected vehicles are setting new standards of resilience against physical attacks.
