An Analog Side-channel Attack on a High-speed Asynchronous SAR ADC using Dual Neural Network Technique

Abstract

This brief presents a side-channel attack (SCA) technique on a high-speed asynchronous successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The proposed dual neural network based on multiple noise waveforms separately discloses sign and absolute value information of input signals which are hidden by the differential structure and high-speed asynchronous operation. The target SAR ADC and on-chip noise monitors are designed on a single prototype chip for SCA demonstration. Fabricated in 40 nm, the experimental results show the proposed attack on the asynchronous SAR ADC successfully restores the input data with a competitive accuracy within 300mV rms error.