Researchers develop bioassays following rigorous experimentation in the lab that involves considerable fiscal and highly-skilled-person-hour investment. Previous work shows that a bioassay implementation can be reverse-engineered by using images or video and control signals of the biochip. Hence, techniques must be devised to protect the intellectual property (IP) rights of the bioassay developer. This study is the first step in this direction and it makes the following contributions: (1) it introduces the use of a dummy valve as a security primitive to obfuscate bioassay implementations; (2) it shows how dummy valves can be used to obscure biochip building blocks such as multiplexers and mixers; (3) it presents design rules and security metrics to design and measure obfuscation. In our preliminary work, we presented the concept through the use of sieve-valve as a dummy-valve. However, sieve-valves are difficult to fabricate. To overcome fabrication complexities, we propose a novel multi-height-valve as an obfuscation primitive. Moreover, we showcase the suitability of multi-height-valve for obfuscation through COMSOL simulations. We demonstrate the practicality of the proposal by fabricating an obfuscated biochip using multi-height valves. We assess the cost-security trade-offs associated with this solution and study the practical implications of dummy-valve based obfuscation on real-life biochips.

中文翻译：

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通过基于虚拟阀的混淆阻止生物知识产权盗窃


研究人员在实验室进行严格的实验后开发生物测定法，这涉及大量的财政和高技能人员的投资。先前的工作表明，可以通过使用生物芯片的图像或视频和控制信号来对生物测定实施进行逆向工程。因此，必须设计技术来保护生物测定开发商的知识产权 (IP)。这项研究是朝这个方向迈出的第一步，它做出了以下贡献：（1）它引入了使用虚拟阀门作为安全原语来混淆生物测定的实施； (2) 它展示了如何使用虚拟阀来隐藏生物芯片构建模块，例如多路复用器和混合器； (3)它提出了设计规则和安全度量来设计和测量混淆。在我们的前期工作中，我们通过使用筛阀作为虚拟阀来提出这个概念。然而，筛阀难以制造。为了克服制造复杂性，我们提出了一种新颖的多高度阀作为混淆原语。此外，我们还通过 COMSOL 仿真展示了多高度阀用于混淆的适用性。我们通过使用多高度阀门制造混淆的生物芯片来证明该提案的实用性。我们评估了与该解决方案相关的成本与安全权衡，并研究了基于虚拟阀的混淆对现实生物芯片的实际影响。