With the recent increase in computational power, deep learning is being applied in many different fields. Deep learning has produced promising results in the field of side-channel analysis. However, the algorithms used to construct deep neural networks remain black boxes, which makes it hard to fully employ the capabilities of attacks performed with these techniques.
This study explores methods to systematize the deep learning techniques used in profiled side-channel analysis. We do so by conducting a literature review of the state-of-the-art. Our observations show that while the process of choosing an architecture and hyperparameters have a great influence on the performance of an attack, not all authors thoroughly document this process. In lights of further improvement of the state-of-the-art, we also propose several promising techniques for hyperparameter optimization in side-channel analysis.