June 27–29, 2017
The College Park Marriott Hotel and Conference Center
College Park, MD

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JTAG Interrogator to Validate Electronic Parts

Ryan Jones (ryan.jones@corelis.com)

Ryan Jones is a Senior Technical Marketing Engineer with EWA. Ryan brings 20+ years of experience in the test equipment industry. He started his career as a design engineer developing measurement electronics and writing control firmware for bare board test equipment including flying probers. Ryan joined the Corelis team in 1999 and has since become an expert in the field of boundary-scan test. He regularly conducts boundary-scan training classes focusing on design-for-test and test procedure development with Corelis products. Corelis is now helping to push boundary-scan as a platform to help address the latest challenges with counterfeit electronic components. Ryan holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Computer Engineering Technology from California State University, Long Beach.

Abstract

The Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) IEEE Standard 1149.1 was originally developed for automated circuit board testing, but it also provides an interface to test electronic devices designed to utilize the standard. The most vulnerable electronic parts of information technology (processors and memory) implement the standard. Towards that end, Corelis developed the JTAG Interrogator™ electronic semiconductor identification and scan chain tool. Interrogator™ let's the user read electronic chip IDs (ECIDs) and examine all the chip’s standards based Opcodes. With the tool, you can ensure correct components were used on a circuit card assembly, that there are no remarked/old version components, and the device has all correct manufacturer’s specified Opcodes from the device's Boundary-Scan Descriptive Language (BSDL) documentation. This last feature insures the device does not have undocumented JTAG instructions that can lead to undocumented functionality, malware and backdoors, or, indicate a poorly designed product. JTAG Interrogator™ can be implemented to evaluate electronic parts at any time of the part’s life cycle: in passage through the supply chain, electronics system developer acquisition, during automated testing after assembly and finally in the field with user implementation. All that is needed to test the components is to run the Interrogator™ application with the Interrogator™ JTAG Controller unit to access a device’s Test Action Port (TAP) or circuit card assembly’s JTAG connector or pads. Once connected to the circuit card assembly JTAG access port, all of the electronic parts along the scan chain can be tested and verified for authenticity.

About Corelis

Corelis, Inc. was founded in 1991 and introduced our first JTAG boundary-scan products in 1998. We have been leaders and innovators in this international market ever since. Our customers range from start-up companies to those at the top of the Fortune 500. Just over two years ago, Corelis became part of Electronic Warfare Associates, Inc., (EWA) a broad-based technology company providing professional engineering services and specialized products to both U.S. and international customers.