Maxim MAXREFDES143# embedded security reference design

The Maxim MAXREFDES143# embedded security reference design provides protection against counterfeit sensor data, guaranteeing its authenticity and integrity along the entire data chain, from transducer to the cloud.

The rapid growth of IoT capabilities for industrial applications comes with legitimate concerns about data integrity, due to deliberate corruption of critical sensor data anywhere between a source and the cloud. The reference design’s sophisticated architecture and components, Arduino-compatible hardware interface and ARM mbed libraries support simplify development of secure, uncorrupted and authenticated sensor-to-web data. It is suitable for analog sensor node and data authentication in factory automation and industrial processing applications.

The reference design’s two-stage hierarchical architecture consists of a shield that communicates to a web server and a protected sensor node for data acquisition and authentication. The shield includes a Wi-Fi module; a DS2465 secure coprocessor for offloading SHA-256 cryptographic computation; 1-wire and I2C interfaces; user-interface LCD, LEDs and push-buttons; along with alarm and logging functions. The sensor node contains a DS28E15 secure authenticator, DS7505 temperature sensor and MAX44009 light sensor.

Key features include fast time-to-market, with reduced development time using the provided hardware and source code to implement an authenticated node solution and web server interface; and ease of use, with a free evaluation web server providing immediate out-of-the-box implementation for real-time data collection and storage of sensor data. It is also secure, with an SHA-256 coprocessor offloading data authentication tasks and securely storing node authentication keys.