A Highly Reliable and Unbiased PUF Based on Differential OTP Memory

Physically unclonable functions (PUF) are essential for hardware identity and security for IoT devices. The PUF consists of a multi-bit string that requires unbiased randomness. A one-time programmable memory (OTPM) uses insulator breakdown in metal-insulator-metal device to switch between insulatin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE electron device letters 2018-08, Vol.39 (8), p.1159-1162
Main Authors: Sadana, S., Lele, A., Tsundus, S., Kumbhare, P., Ganguly, U.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aging
Breakdown
Cryptography
Electric breakdown
Electric potential
High voltages
Insulators
Integrated circuits
key generation
non-volatile memory
Object recognition
oxide breakdown
Post-processing
PUF
random number generator
Randomness
Reproducibility
Resistance
Security
Stress
TDDB
Temperature measurement
Voltage drop
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Summary:Physically unclonable functions (PUF) are essential for hardware identity and security for IoT devices. The PUF consists of a multi-bit string that requires unbiased randomness. A one-time programmable memory (OTPM) uses insulator breakdown in metal-insulator-metal device to switch between insulating ("0") and conducting ("1") state. An OTPM based PUF produces an unbiased bit-string if exactly median breakdown voltage ( {V}_{\textsf {BD}} ) and time are used. The exact application of median {V}_{\textsf {BD}} is challenging in an integrated circuit as a conventional voltage supply tolerance specification is 10%. In this letter, we propose a differential OTPM-based PUF with a parallel circuit of two OTPM in series with a resistance. A high voltage stochastically produces a breakdown in one of the two OTPM first, which then reduces the voltage drop across the parallel OTPM circuit to prevent further breakdown events. The experimental results of differential OTPM PUF binary string generation show essentially unbiased randomness to demonstrate excellent resistance to supply voltage variation. Ideal uniqueness and reproducibility are observed. Thus, our approach enables PUF implementation with standard voltage supply tolerance and negligible post-processing.
ISSN:0741-3106
1558-0563
DOI:10.1109/LED.2018.2844557