In-depth Analyses of Microcontrollers and Other Chips Made Easy

At the 29th Chaos Communication Congress (29C3) in Hamburg, Berlin-based security researchers Karsten Nohl and dexter presented a custom-built workstation for "microprobing" semiconductor chips. Comparable in-depth analysis tools such as those for microcontrollers and similar small computer systems often cost several tens of thousands of pounds and have so far mostly only been available in specialised labs. This type of analysis involves examining a chip's individual conductor wires or memory cells with a microscope-like setup and a very thin probe. The "probing device" enables examiners to, for example, record data and command sequences by intercepting bus signals.

Dexter explained that the custom-built workstation consists of a fixed-position microscope that can cope with large working distances to what it is working on, a large magnetic work platform, and a micropositioning system. The micropositioner is a motor-driven stage that can be moved in increments of a few millimetres to a few centimetres. Hardened tungsten needles are required on the microscope's tip to create the electrical contact with the semiconductor material. According to Nohl, who runs Security Research Labs, the overall component cost is no more than €3,000 (approximately £2,440) and will, for the first time, allow interested amateurs to do "microprobing in their basement".

The presented workstation uses a movable stage and micropositioner to place the chip that is to be examined underneath the fixed-position microscope's lens barrel; a tungsten needle is used as a probe Zoom.

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