As an automotive supplier, DENSO is leading in developing and providing components and systems for heating, air conditioning, motor cooling, exhaust gas aftertreatment, automotive electrics and electronics and instrumentation.
 

The focus of the work is on reliable methods to ensure hardware security of microprocessors. In safety-critical areas like autonomous driving, hardware has to be trustworthy. Recently a lot of new security vulnerabilities have been identified and several new attacks exploiting them appeared. To defend against attacks, the availability of reliable methods to ensure hardware security is mandatory. Corresponding methods will be researched in this work, especially for microprocessors.

The Ph.D. Student (m/f/d) is expected to advance the state-of-the-art in formal verification of hardware security by researching new modeling and verification approaches. Additionally, hardware run-time monitors that monitor the security state and detect attacks during operation of hardware are researched.

This work will be conducted as within the project “DIVA-IC: New design methods for trustworthy electronics”, which is a newly granted research project co-funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The student's tasks include

• Conduct research that is related to the security of microprocessors on topics in scope of the DIVA-IC research project. The primary focus of the research topics will be
  • Researching new modeling and formal verification approaches for ensuring hardware security during development
  • Researching new hardware run-time monitors that monitor the security state and detect attacks during hardware operation
  • Integration of the developed hardware run-time monitors into microprocessors
• Discuss with DENSO-internal R&D teams to collect feedback and help applying project results in product development and related research.
• Collaborate and coordinate research activities with partners in academia and industry in Germany.
• Assist administrative tasks in DIVA-IC, when occasionally assigned by the project manager.

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in computer science, engineering, or related disciplines.
• Highly motivated and keen on working in an international and interdisciplinary team.
• Experience/Knowledge in the following fields is preferred:
  • Formal verification (Model Checking)
  • Microprocessor Architecture
  • Hardware Security
  • Digital Hardware Design
  • Digital Hardware Verification
  • Skills in using SystemVerilog Assertions 
  • Hands-on experience in using EDA formal verification tools, e.g. JasperGold
  • Programming skills in at least one programming language, e.g. C/C++
• Skills in at least one hardware description language, e.g. VHDL or Verilog.
• Fluency in spoken and written English. Knowledge of German is not required but preferred.

• Flextime
• Working from Home
• Daily Allowances for Business Trips
• 13th Month Salary
• Diverse Team
• Company Doctor
• Family Friendliness
• Employee Referral Programme
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Free parking
• Canteen
• Free Coffee, Tea and Water
• Paid Holiday