RAT: RFET-based Analog Hardware Trojan

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Nima Kavand, Armin Darjani, Tushar Niranjan, Akash Kumar

Published: 01 Jan 2025, Last Modified: 12 Nov 2025ISVLSI 2025EveryoneRevisionsBibTeXCC BY-SA 4.0
Abstract: This paper presents a reconfigurable trigger that can increase the attacker’s control over the activation and deactivation of analog hardware Trojans by exploiting Reconfigurable Field-Effect Transistors (RFETs). RFETs are emerging CMOScompatible transistors with runtime reconfigurability between P and N -type. Due to this reconfigurability property, the trigger can support both active-high and active-low payloads with the same structure. Based on the results, the proposed trigger extends trigger time and enhances noise margin while reducing area and power overheads compared to state-of-the-art analog Trojans, leading to a stealthier and more reliable design. We also discuss how the proposed trigger can evade detection mechanisms.