EEPROM Memory SEM Search and Probing Attack

This paper proposed two invasive attack methods against semiconductor chips, and these two methods are SEM search and probing attack, respectively. Their goals are both extracting contents from EEPROM which usually keeps sensitive information such as authentication information and personal keys. Two experiments process were shown in this paper. By making use of features of nonvolatile memories, the first one used SEM to observe target EEPROM cells to distinguish cells which store different contents and to locate EEPROM cells with certain memory chip pre-processed. The second one used needles to test working signals of memory cells by contacting PADs which connect electrodes of memory cell transistors to distinguish different cells.