Side-Channel Leakage in SFQ Circuits and Related Attacks on Qubit Control and Readout Systems

Single flux quantum (SFQ) technology is currently used as a cryogenic control and readout circuitry of superconducting quantum computers. The low power operation and high switching frequency of SFQ technology are instrumental to efficiently scale a quantum computer. With the growing interest in the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on applied superconductivity 2023-09, Vol.33 (6), p.1-8
Main Authors: Mustafa, Yerzhan, Kose, Selcuk
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Circuits
Computers
Control systems
Electronics
ERSFQ
hardware security
Leakage
Quantum computers
Qubit
Qubits (quantum computing)
Read out systems
Room temperature
RSFQ
Security
SFQ-based qubit control and readout
SFQ-to-DC (SFQ/DC) converter
side-channel attack
Side-channel attacks
Simulation
Single flux quantum (SFQ) circuits
superconducting quantum computer
Superconductivity
Temperature measurement
Voltage measurement
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Summary:Single flux quantum (SFQ) technology is currently used as a cryogenic control and readout circuitry of superconducting quantum computers. The low power operation and high switching frequency of SFQ technology are instrumental to efficiently scale a quantum computer. With the growing interest in the hardware security of SFQ circuits, a novel side-channel leakage mechanism in SFQ-to-DC converters is uncovered in this paper. The leakage mechanism is investigated for two logic styles, namely rapid SFQ (RSFQ) and energy-efficient RSFQ (ERSFQ). By observing the fluctuations in the power supply provided by the room temperature electronics, a malicious adversary can extract critical information about the applied input signals. This type of side-channel leakage can lead to serious security vulnerabilities for superconducting electronics and quantum computers. Two potential side-channel attacks that exploit this vulnerability and target SFQ-based qubit control and readout systems are proposed.
ISSN:1051-8223
1558-2515
DOI:10.1109/TASC.2023.3277864