Protecting against emission based side channel detection

A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a data processing system, causes the data processing system to:

• parse, by a logic synthesis engine executing in the data processing system, an integrated circuit (IC) device design data structure specifying an IC device design, to identify at least one instance of an obfuscation indicator in the IC device design data structure, and wherein the obfuscation indicator identifies a corresponding IC logic element of those who state is to be non-discoverable;
• mark, by the logic synthesis engine, at least one IC logic element, in the IC device design, which is associated with the at least one instance of the obfuscation indicator;
• select, by an emission obfuscation optimization engine executing in the data processing system, at least one emission obfuscation optimization to enable for application to the marked at least one IC logic element, wherein the selection enables one or more emission obfuscation optimizations based on design constraints of the IC device design, a configuration of logic elements and pathways of the IC device design, and emission obfuscation requirements for the at least one IC logic element, the at least one emission obfuscation optimization including replacing at least one target IC logic element having a first voltage threshold that produces a first emissions with at least one replacement IC logic element having a second voltage threshold that produces a second emissions that is lower than the first emissions;
• automatically apply, by the emission obfuscation optimization engine in the data processing system, the at least one emission obfuscation optimization to the marked at least one IC logic element by relocating the marked at least one IC logic element to a high density region of the IC device design, to modify the IC device design to obfuscate emissions from the marked at least one IC logic element, and generate an emissions obfuscated IC device design data structure specifying the modified IC device;
• output, by the data processing system, the emissions obfuscated IC device design data structure to a fabrication tool configured to fabricate a physical IC device in accordance with the emissions obfuscated IC device;
• and
• fabricate, by the fabrication tool, the physical IC device based on the emissions obfuscated IC device design data structure, the physical IC device including at least one physical IC logic element having the at least one emission obfuscation optimization that corresponds to the marked at least one IC logic element.