Hardware-based anti-counterfeiting techniques for safeguarding supply chain integrity

Counterfeit integrated circuits (ICs) and systems have emerged as a menace to the supply chain of electronic goods and products. Simple physical inspection for counterfeit detection, basic intellectual property (IP) laws, and simple protection measures are becoming ineffective against advanced reverse engineering and counterfeiting practices. As a result, hardware security-based techniques have emerged as promising solutions for combating counterfeiting, reverse engineering, and IP theft. However, these solutions have their own merits and shortcomings, and therefore, these options must be carefully studied. In this work, we present a comparative overview of available hardware security solutions to fight against IC counterfeiting. We provide a detailed comparison of the techniques in terms of integration effort, deployability, and security matrices that would assist a system designer to adopt any one of these security measures for safeguarding the product supply chain against counterfeiting and IP theft.