Exploring Advanced Packaging Technologies for Reverse Engineering a System-in-Package (SiP)

System-in-package (SiP) is a type of electronic packaging convention that integrates multiple components, such as microprocessors, memory, sensors, and so on, in the form of chiplets into a single unified package. SiP integration, enabled by advanced packaging technologies, is particularly well-suited for mobile devices, wearables, and IoT applications, where space and power constraints are critical. The demand for SiP devices is expected to grow as more applications and industries adopt IoT and connected technologies. The increasing popularity of SiPs also indicates that SiP devices are becoming more attractive targets for attackers who seek to exploit vulnerabilities or steal proprietary information. Intellectual property (IP) piracy and chip counterfeiting powered by reverse engineering (RE) are the biggest threats to fear as we progress toward more advanced packaging technologies. Chiplets are vended in the semiconductor supply chain as off-the-shelf standalone components that can be integrated into larger system-level designs. So, from an attacker’s perspective, the crucial challenge in RE an SiP is not concerning the chiplet designs, rather the main target is uncovering the internal structure of the advanced packaging that routes signals away from, toward, and between the chiplets. In this work, we explore some of the popular advanced packaging technologies and propose a set of guidelines for RE SiPs that employ these packaging technologies. We have also exhibited a case study where we used a nondestructive approach to break into an SiP sample to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed framework and validate our RE approach.