Zero-Remanence Anti-Tamper Cryptokey Storage Device

The goal of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is to research and develop a low-power, fast, non-volatile memory sufficient in size for storing encryption keys that has the capability to "zeroize" itself without data remanence in response to tampering and without applied power using a permanent magnet based technique. The device is intended for volumetric protection of analog and digital electronics systems. In addition to self-zeroization, the device has the capability to signal that a tampering event has occurred. The proposed anti-tamper memory device can be reprogrammed indefinitely and read by the protected hardware using a standard interface. Initially the device will be implemented as a stand-alone cryptokey memory for volumetric anti-tamper applications, but with further research and development, memory capacity could be increased, and it could be embedded into an integrated circuit package for protection of custom application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or microcontrollers. The phase I program will use a combination of experiment and modeling to evaluate the effectiveness of the zeroization mechanisms, power requirements for reading and writing the device, and manufacturing feasibility.