IC Decomposition and Imaging Metrics to Optimize Design File Recovery for Verification and Validation

This paper presents an in-depth review of the critical front end stages of the fabricated integrated circuit (IC) assurance workflow used for recovering the design stack-up of a fabricated IC. In this work, a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) embedded on a 130 nm static random access memory (SRAM) chip is targeted for recovering the full design stack-up. This process leverages state-of-the-art techniques for high precision material processing and image acquisition to optimize and ensure the highest accuracy in the feature extraction stage. To this end, we present metrics that can be leveraged for optimizing the front end stages of the assurance workflow. Novel imaging figures of merit (FOM) for optimizing image acquisition parameters have been developed and are presented. The Image Quality Factor (IQF) FOM was established to quantify overall image quality as it pertains to feature extraction and the Quality and Efficiency Rating (QER) FOM was demonstrated to optimize imaging parameter selection, balancing image quality and image acquisition time.

Experimental Assessment of PCR Specificity and Copy Number for Reliable Data Retrieval in DNA Storage

ABSTRACTSynthetic DNA has been gaining momentum as a potential storage medium for archival data storage1–9. Digital information is translated into sequences of nucleotides and the resulting synthetic DNA strands are then stored for later individual file retrieval via PCR7–9(Fig. 1a). Using a previously presented encoding scheme9and new experiments, we demonstrate reliable file recovery when as few as 10 copies per sequence are stored, on average. This results in density of about 17 exabytes/g, nearly two orders of magnitude greater than prior work has shown6. Further, no prior work has experimentally demonstrated access to specific files in a pool more complex than approximately 106unique DNA sequences9, leaving the issue of accurate file retrieval at high data density and complexity unexamined. Here, we demonstrate successful PCR random access using three files of varying sizes in a complex pool of over 1010unique sequences, with no evidence that we have begun to approach complexity limits. We further investigate the role of file size on successful data recovery, the effect of increasing sequencing coverage to aid file recovery, and whether DNA strands drop out of solution in a systematic manner. These findings substantiate the robustness of PCR as a random access mechanism in complex settings, and that the number of copies needed for data retrieval does not compromise density significantly.

E-Raser: File Shredder Application With Content Replacement by Using Random Words Function

Data shredding indicates a process of irreversible file destruction while file shredder is the program designed to render computer-based files unreadable by implementing overwriting method to destroy data in the content of a file. The addressable problem with existence of file recovery tools is it may lead to data leakage, exploitation or dissemination from an unauthorized person. Thus, this study proposed a file shredding application named E-Raser which replacing the content of the file using random words function algorithm. A file shredder application named E-Raser was developed to shred Microsoft Word documents with (.doc) or (.docx) format. The implemented algorithm replaced the original content of the files with uninformative words provided by the application. After rewriting phase is complete, shredding process take place to make the file unrecoverable. Object Oriented Software Development was used as the methodology to develop this application. As a result, E-Raser achieved the objectives to add, remove, rewrite, display and shred files. Also, E-Raser is significantly facilitates users to securely dispose their file, protect the confidentiality and privacy of the file’s content.