ADWIL: A Zero-Overhead Analog Device Watermarking Using Inherent IP Features

With the increased complexity of integrated circuits (ICs) and the fabrication processes at lower technology nodes, the semiconductor industry has largely shifted to a horizontal business model to minimize time-to-market and manufacturing costs. Due to outsourcing, the design house and third-party intellectual property (IP) owners lack control over the fabrication process, which can result in IP piracy, overuse, and counterfeiting. Watermarking is an approach to trace pirated parts back to the source by uniquely identifying IPs. In this paper, we introduce a novel watermarking technique, called ADWIL, using specific features and characteristics of the analog and mixed-signal (AMS) IP cores without modifying the target IP circuitry or its internal structure. Since the IP core remains unaltered, the watermark is very hard to detect and impossible to remove. Our experimental results on different op-amps demonstrate that watermark can be extracted reliably from target IP cores by using ADWIL.