Adiabatic Computing Based Low-Power and DPA-Resistant Lightweight Cryptography for IoT Devices

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) devices are mostly small and operate wirelessly on limited battery supply, and therefore have stringent constraints on power consumption and hardware resources. Lightweight cryptography (LWC) provides cryptographic solutions for resource-constrained IoT devices. LWC based IoT devices are vulnerable to side-channel attacks such as Differential Power Analysis (DPA). The existing CMOS-based countermeasures for DPA are not suitable for circuits working under energy constraints. Adiabatic logic is one of the promising computing paradigms to design energy-efficient and DPAresistant hardware. Therefore, we have investigated the usefulness of adiabatic logic for low-power and DPA-resistant LWC for IoT devices. In this paper, the PRESENT-80 LWC algorithm is used as a benchmark circuit. The PRESENT-80 algorithm is implemented using Symmetric Pass Gate Adiabatic Logic (SPGAL). SPICE simulations at 12.5 MHz validated that one round of PRESENT-80 implemented using SPGAL gates saves 83% and 91% of power consumption in comparison to CMOS and SABL (Sense Amplifier Based Logic) based implementations, respectively. The security of SPGAL based PRESENT-80 has been evaluated by performing a DPA attack through SPICE simulations. We proved that the SPGAL-based implementation of the PRESENT-80 algorithm is resistant to DPA attacks. Further, low-leakage nano-electronic device FinFET can provide powerefficient solutions for IoT devices. Therefore, the design of the PRESENT-80 algorithm using FinFET based SPGAL gates is also presented. The simulations proved that adiabatic FinFET circuits consume low-power and are more resistant to DPA attacks as compared to adiabatic CMOS circuits.