Divided backend duplication methodology for balanced dual rail routing

Abstract

Dual Rail Precharge circuits offer an effective way to address Differential Power Analysis Attacks, provided routing of differential signals is fully balanced. Fat Wire [1] and Backend Duplication [2] methods address this problem. However they do not consider the effect of coupling capacitance on adjacent differential signals. In this paper we propose a new method, Divided Backend Duplication, which is based on Divided Wave Dynamic Differential Logic [3] and Backend Duplication [2], that effectively addresses balanced routing problem of Dual Rail Precharge circuits. Experimental results on an AES test circuit in 130nm technology show improvements in achieving a balanced dual rail design. Further our method can also be successfully applied to FPGAs. Results from an sbox test circuit implementation on a Xilinx FPGA are presented. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.