Documentation

Degate

• Installation (degate version ≥ 0.0.7)
• Installation (degate version ≤ 0.0.6)
• Start degate
• Frequently Asked Questions
• A documentation about reverse engineering of logic in integrated circuits. (Language: German)
• Documentation for libdegate

Tools

• Gwyddion
  "Gwyddion is a modular program for SPM (scanning probe microscopy) data visualization and analysis. Primarily it is intended for analysis of height fields obtained by scanning probe microscopy techniques (AFM, MFM, STM, SNOM/NSOM), however it can be generally used for any other height field and image analysis, for instance for analysis of profilometry data."
• μManager
  "μManager is a software package for control of automated microscopes. It lets you execute common microscope image acquisition strategies such as time-lapses, multi-channel imaging, z-stacks, and combinations thereof. μManager works with microscopes from all four major manufacturers (Leica, Nikon, Olympus and Zeiss), most scientific-grade cameras and many peripherals (stages, filter wheels, shutters, etc.) used in microscope imaging. Since μManager runs as a plugin to ImageJ, image analysis routines are available within the application. μManager software is available for multiple platforms (Windows, Mac, and Linux) and is free."

Misc

• The Silicon Zoo
  The Silicon Zoo is a collection of logic cells found in silicon chips. The collection is provided freely for the study, comparison, and reverse-engineering of silicon implementations.
• Howto decap ICs with rosin (colophony)?
  A description of several experiments how ICs can be decapped at home. (German)
• John McMaster's blog: IC reverse engineering
• Silicon Pr0n: A place to collaborate on IC reverse engineering.
• Flylogic Engineering's Analytical Blog
• μblog: engineering from the trenches

Recommended papers and articles

• Jean Kumagai
  Chip Detectives, 2000
• D. Lagunovsky, S. Ablameyko, M. Kutas
  Recognition of integrated circuit images in reverse engineering, 1998
• Karsten Nohl, David Evans, Starbug, Henryk Plötz
  Reverse-Engineering a Cryptographic RFID Tag, 2008
• G. Masalskis, R. Navickas
  Reverse Engineering of CMOS Integrated Circuits, 2008

Papers, articles and patents

The following list of papers is a complete export of my chip reverse engineering related section of my Papers database. For any unknown reason it seems to be common, that scientific papers are published without a date information. So the year entry does not always reflect the correct publishing year.

Please note that the local PDF copy is not for the public. Some of the papers are only available via IEEE explore, Springer Link and similar portals.

• Kenneth K Yu; C Neil Berglund
  Automated System for extracting design and layout information from an integrated circuit (patent US5086477), 1990
  [local PDF]
• Zhigang R Li
  Industrial Applications of Electron Microscopy, 2003
  [local PDF]
• Scott Deno; David Landis; Paul Hulina; Sanjay Balasubramanian
  A Rapid Prototyping Methodology for Reverse Engineering of Legacy Electronic Systems, 1999
  [local PDF]
• Louis Scheffer; Luciano Lavagno; Grant Martin
  EDA for IC Implementation, Circuit Design, and Process Technology, 2006
  [local PDF]
• D Lagunovsky; S Ablameyko; M Kutas
  Extraction of topological features of integrated circuit from grey-scale image, 2007
  [local PDF]
  Keywords: Wire Matching
• Jennifer L White; Anthony S Wojcik; Moon-Jung Chung; Travis E Doom
  Candidate subcircuits for functional module identification in logic circuits, 2000
  [local PDF]
• Michael Guerzhoy; Hui Zhou
  Segmentation of Rectangular Objects Lying on an Unknown Background in a Small Preview Scan Image , 2008
  [local PDF]
• Nikolaos G Bourbakis; CVRamamoorthy
  Specifications for the development of an expert tool for the automatic optical understanding of electronic circuits: VLSI Reverse Engineering, 1991
  [local PDF]
• Chang-Huang Chen
  Edge Detection Based on Class Ratio, 2002
  [local PDF]
• Raouf Kh SADYKHOV; Maksim E VATKIN
  Algorithm for Image Processing of Integrated Circuits on the Basis of the "Neocognitron" Neural Network, 2001
  [local PDF]
  Keywords: Wire Matching; Via Matching
• Travis Doom; Jennifer White; Anthony S Wojcik; Greg Chisholm
  Identifying High-Level Components in Combinational Circuits, 1998
  [local PDF]
• J Gattiker; S Mertoguno; Moghaddamzadeh; N Bourbakis
  Visual reverse engineering using SPNs for automated testing and diagnosis of digital circuits, 1995
  [local PDF]
• Gunther Lehmann; Bernhard Wunder; Klaus D Miiller-Glaser
  Basic Concepts for an HDL Reverse Engineering Tool-Set , 1999
  [local PDF]
• Tarek Sobh; M khaled Elleithy; Sarosh Patel
  Reverse Engineering of VLSI Chips: A Roadmap, 2007
  [local PDF]
• Rong-chin Lo; Wen-Hsiang Tsai
  Gray-scale hough transform for thick line detection in gray-scale images, 1994
  [local PDF]
• HP Yao; Qi Zhong; Vic Ku; CK Lo; YR Wu; YF Hsieh
  Circuitry analyses by using high quality image acquisition and multi-layer image merge technique, 2005
  [local PDF]
• Samir Jain; Randal E Bryant; Alok Jain
  Automatic Clock Abstraction from Sequential Circuits, 2005
  [local PDF]
• Mehrdad Majzoobi; Farinaz Koushanfar; Miodrag Potkonjak
  Lightweight Secure PUFs, 2008
  [local PDF]
• Bernd Jähne
  Digitale Bildverarbeitung (6. Auflage), 2005
  [local PDF]
• Jeong-Hun Jang; Ki-Sang Hong
  Fast line segment grouping method for finding globally more favorable line segments, 2002
  [local PDF]
  Keywords: Line Matching; image segmentation
• Wonjong Kim; Hyunchul Shin
  Hierarchical LVS Based on Hierarchy Rebuilding, 1998
  [local PDF]
• D B Shu; C C Li; J F Mancuso; Y N Sun
  A line extraction method for automated SEM inspection of VLSI resist, 1988
  [local PDF]
• H J TRUSSELL and M J Vrhel
  Fundamentals of Digital Imaging, 2008
  [local PDF]
• Simon Perreault; Patrick H ebert
  Median Filtering in Constant Time, 2007
  [local PDF]
• Sergei Skorobogatov
  Local Heating Attacks on Flash Memory Devices, 2009
  [local PDF]
• Lei Yang; C-J Richard Shi
  FROSTY: A Fast Hierarchy Extractor for Industrial CMOS Circuits, 2003
  [local PDF]
• AG Cullis; JL Hutchison
  Microscopy of Semiconducting Materials : Proceedings of the 14th conference, April 11-14, 2005, Oxford, UK (Springer Proceedings in Physics), 2005
  [local PDF]
• Qiao Li
  Layout extraction including substrate parasitics for ESD protection circuits and design rule checking, 2001
  [local PDF]
• Manuel Abellanas; Ferran Hurtado; Christian Icking; Lihong Ma; Belen Palop; Pedro A Ramos
  Best Fitting Rectangles, 2004
  [local PDF]
• Ross Anderson; Markus Kuhn
  Low Cost Attacks on Tamper Resistant Devices, 1998
  [local PDF]
• Arthur Lo
  A diagrammatic reasoning approach to automatic wire routing., 1982
  [local PDF]
• Matthias Harter
  A Key Bit on a Chip, 1999
  [local PDF]
• GREGORY H CHISHOLM; STEVEN T ECKMANN; CHRISTOPHER M LAIN
  Understanding integrated Circuits, 1999
  [local PDF]
• R Drechsler; W Günther; T Eschbach; L Linhard; G Angst
  Recursive bi-partitioning of netlists for large number of partitions, 2003
  [local PDF]
• Simon Blythe; Beatrice Fraboni; Sanjay Lall; Haroon Ahmed; Ugo de Riu
  Layout reconstruction of complex silicon chips, 1993
  [local PDF]
  Keywords: Wire Matching
• CR Lageweg
  Designing an Automatic Schematic Generator for a Netlist Description, 1998
  [local PDF]
• Dmitry Lagunovsky; Sergey Ablameyko
  Fast Line and Rectangle Detection by Clustering and Grouping, 1997
  [local PDF]
  Keywords: Rectangle matching; Line Matching
• AA Doudkin; RKh Sadykhov; ME Vatkin
  The Algorithms of Quasi-Optimal Picture Areas Matching, 2003
  [local PDF]
  Keywords: Stitching
• Lilian Bossuet; Guy Gogniat; Wayne Burleson
  Dynamically Configurable Security for SRAM FPGA Bitstreams, 2004
  [local PDF]
• S Amelinckx; D van Dyck; J van Landuyt; G van Tendeloo
  Handbook of Microscopy, Applications in Materials Science, Volume 2 - Methods II, 1997
  [local PDF]
• T E Doom; L J White; G H Chisholm; A S Wojcik
  Identification of Functional Components in Combinational Circuits, 1998
  [local PDF]
• Dan Ciresan and Dana Damian
  LNCS 4174 - Preserving Topological Information in the Windowed Hough Transform for Rectangle Extraction, 2006
  [local PDF]
• Timothy R Corle; Gordon S Kino
  Confocal Scanning Optical Microscopy and Related Imaging Systems, 2008
  [local PDF]
• Thomas Zangerl
  Kantenerkennung in Bildern, 2007
  [local PDF]
  Keywords: Edge Detection
• Randy Torrance
  The state-of-the-art in Semiconductor Reverse Engineering at Chipworks, 2009
  [local PDF]
• Ian Besse; Patrick Campbell; Julianne Chung; Malena I Espanol; Mark Iwen; Edward Keyes; Qingshuo Song
  IMA Mathematical Modeling in Industry Workshop 2005: Integrated Circuit Layout Reconstruction, 2005
  [local PDF]
• DJ Weaver; JRA Cleaver; L Avery; H Ahmed
  Multilayer integrated-circuit imaging with contrast enhancement in a large-area, high-resolution electron-beam system, 2000
  [local PDF]
• Randy Torrance; Dick James
  The State-of-the-Art in IC Reverse Engineering, 2009
  [local PDF]
• Takashi Hiroi; Shunji Maeda; Hitoshi Kubota; Kenji Watanabe; Yasuo Nakagawa
  Precise visual inspection for LSI wafer patterns using subpixelimage alignment, 2004
  [local PDF]
• A Ardeshir Goshtasby
  2-D and 3-D Image Registration - For Medical Remote Sensing and Industrial Applications, 2005
  [local PDF]
• Dong-Chul Park; Vu Thi Lan Huong; Dong-Min Woo; Yunsik Lee
  Extraction of Rectangular Boundaries from Aerial Image Data, 2008
  [local PDF]
• Xiaoxiao Wang; Hassan Salmani; Mohammad Tehranipoor; Jim Plusquellic
  Hardware Trojan Detection and Isolation Using Current Integration and Localized Current Analysis, 2008
  [local PDF]
• Xiaobai Li; Honglei Qin; Rongling lang
  An Algorithm For Identifying The Recurring Subcircuits, 2006
  [local PDF]
• Lionel Moisan
  An a-contrario model for sharpness detection based on total variation, 2009
  [local PDF]
• Blaise Gassend; Dwaine Clarke; Marten van Dijk; Srinivas Devadas
  Silicon Physical Random Functions, 2002
  [local PDF]
• Johannes Steinmüller
  Bildanalyse - Von der Bildverarbeitung zur räumlichen Interpretation von Bildern, 2009
  [local PDF]
• M Moganti; F Ercal; C H Dagli; S Tsunekawa
  Automatic PCB Inspection Algorithms: A Survey, 1996
  [local PDF]
• Robert L Boylestad; Queensborough Community College
  Introductory Circuit Analysis, Tenth Edition, 2008
  Keywords: Robert L. Boylestad; Copyright: 2003; Queensborough Community College; ISBN-13: 9780130974174; 1248 pp; Format: Cloth; Publisher: Prentice Hall; ISBN-10: 013097417X; Introductory Circuit Analysis; Tenth Edition
• Stephen T Frezza; Steven P Levitan
  SPAR: A Schematic Place and Route System, 1997
  [local PDF]
• Randy Wayne
  Light and Video Microscopy, 2009
  [local PDF]
• Dmitry Lagunovsky; Sergey Ablameyko
  Straight-line-based primitive extraction in grey-scale object recognition, 1999
  [local PDF]
  Keywords: Line Matching
• Shigeru Shimada; Shigeru Kakumoto
  Line recognition method (patent US4428077), 1980
  [local PDF]
• Babak H Khalaj; Hamid K Aghajan; Thomas Kailath
  Automated direct patterned wafer inspection, 2004
  [local PDF]
• Z Ling
  SubCircuit Extraction with SubGraph Isomorphism,
  [local PDF]
• Semiconductor Insights Inc.
  Automated design analysis system for generating circuit schematics from high magnification images of an integrated circuit (patent US5694481), 1995
  [local PDF]
• Ian Mcloughlin
  Secure Embedded Systems: The Threat of Reverse Engineering, 2008
  [local PDF]
• Sarangapani Murali; Narasimalu Srikanth
  Acid Decapsulation of Epoxy Molded IC Packages With Copper Wire Bonds, 2006
  [local PDF]
• Edoardo Charbon; Ilhami Torunoglu
  Watermarking Techniques for Electronic Circuit Design, 2003
  [local PDF]
• S Amelinckx; D van Dyck; J van Landuyt; G van Tendeloo
  Electron Microscopy - Principles and Fundamentals , 1997
  [local PDF]
• Sergei Skorobogatov
  Using Optical Emission Analysis for Estimating Contribution to Power Analysis, 2009
  [local PDF]
• Angelika Erhardt
  Einführung in die Digitale Bildverarbeitung - Grundlagen, Systeme und Anwendungen, 2008
  [local PDF]
• N G Bourbakis; A Mogzadeh; S Mertoguno; C Koutsougeras
  A knowledge-based expert system for automatic visual VLSI reverse-engineering: VLSI layout version, 2002
  [local PDF]
• Sean P Frigo; Zachary H Levine; Nestor J Zaluzec
  Submicron imaging of buried integrated circuit structures using scanning confocal electron microscopy, 2002
  [local PDF]
• Naruto Takasaki; Yutaka Tanaka
  Pattern recognition apparatur (patent US5222158), 1989
  [local PDF]
• Kai Briechle; Uwe D Hanebeck
  Template matching using fast normalized cross correlation, 2001
  [local PDF]
  Keywords: Template Matching
• Kanupriya Gulati; Sunil P Khatri
  Hardware Acceleration of EDA Algorithms: Custom ICs, FPGAs and GPUs, 2010
  [local PDF]
  Keywords: 9781441909435; ISBN-13:
• Jarrod A Roy; Farinaz Koushanfar; Igor L Markov
  EPIC: Ending Piracy of Integrated Circuits, 2007
  [local PDF]
• Ann Scher; Michael Shneier; Azriel Rosenfeld
  CLUSTERING OF COLLINEAR LINE SEGMENTS, 1981
  [local PDF]
• Travis E Doom; Anthony S Wojcik; Moon-Jung Chung
  Design recovery for incomplete combinational logic, 1999
  [local PDF]
• Jean Kumagai
  Chip Detectives, 2000
  [local PDF]
• D Lagunovsky; S Ablameyko; M Kutas
  Recognition of Integrated Circuit Images in Reverse Engineering, 2009
  [local PDF]
  Keywords: Wire Matching
• Guy Dupenloup; Thierry Lemeunier; Roland Mayr
  Transistor Abstraction for the Functional Verification of FPGAs, 2006
  [local PDF]
• Michael Kass; Andrew Witkin; Demetri Terzopoulos
  Snakes: Active Contour Models , 1988
  [local PDF]
• Zhanggui Zeng; Hong Yan
  Line Extraction Using Image Carving, 2006
  [local PDF]
• Sergei P Skorobogatov; Ross J Anderson
  Optical Fault Induction Attacks, 2002
  [local PDF]
• M Laurentin; A Greiner; R Marbot
  DESB, a functional abstractor for CMOS VLSI circuits, 1997
  [local PDF]
• A Lester; P Bazargan-Sabet; A Greiner
  YAGLE, a Second Generation Functional Abstractor for CMOS VLSI Circuits, 2010
  [local PDF]
• GREGORY H CHISHOLM; STEVEN T ECKMANN; CHRISTOPHER M LAIN; Robert L Veroff
  Reverse engineering of integrated circuits (patent US6536018), 2000
  [local PDF]
• Don Williams; Peter D Burns
  Measuring and Managing Digital Image Sharpening, 2008
  [local PDF]
• Michael Boehner
  LOGEX—an automatic logic extractor form transistor to gate level for CMOS technology, 1999
  [local PDF]
• Tegze P Haraszti
  CMOS Memory Circuits, 2002
  [local PDF]
• Yoshihiro Midoh; Katsuyoshi Miura; Koji Nakamae; Hiromu Fujioka
  Statistical optimization of Canny edge detector for measurement of fine line patterns in SEM image, 2005
  [local PDF]
• T Y Zhang; C Y Suen
  A fast parallel algorithm for thinning digital patterns, 1984
  [local PDF]
  Keywords: Thinning
• DJ Weaver; JRA Cleaver; L Avery; H Ahmed
  Substrate dopant imaging for layout reconstruction of integrated-circuit layers, 2002
  [local PDF]
• Haruo Yoda; Yozo Ohuchi; Yuzo Taniguchi; Masakazu Ejiri
  An Automatic Wafer Inspection System Using Pipelined Image Processing Techniques, 1988
  [local PDF]
• M Brutscheck; M Franke; A Th Schwarzbacher; St Becker
  Investigation of Finite State Machines in Unknown CMOS Integrated Circuits, 2007
  [local PDF]
• AA Doudkin; DA Vershok
  Computer-Aided Inspection of Some Design Rules of Integrated Circuit Layers, 2003
  [local PDF]