Why analog anti-tamper security IP is crucial in the PQC era

By Chris Morrison

July 28, 2026

The global semiconductor industry is transitioning to the post-quantum cryptography (PQC) era. PQC is changing how digital systems defend against potential mathematical attacks. PQC algorithms are designed to protect against hackers who try to recover secret keys by breaking the underlying mathematics. However, physical hardware attacks can bypass mathematically secure algorithms, even if a PQC algorithm is perfectly implemented.

Explore Agile Analog IP:

• Clock Attack Monitor
• Voltage Glitch Detector
• Temperature Sensor (Digital Output)
• EMFI Detector
• Low Drop-Out Linear Regulator

As organizations migrate to PQC, replacing the cryptographic assets being protected—PQC private keys, root keys, firmware signing keys—becomes costly and complex in deployed devices like automotive electronic control units (ECUs) and industrial or defense systems. When a chip processes post-quantum algorithms, it handles significantly larger key sizes and more complex mathematical operations than legacy cryptography.

This extended processing time and high computational intensity widen the vulnerability window, leaving the silicon exposed to physical tampering such as side-channel attacks (SCAs) and fault injection attacks (FIAs).

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