Improving uniformity and reliability of SRAM PUFs utilizing device aging phenomenon for unique identifier generation

Jiang

et al. 2020

Electronics

As one of the fundamental elements of the fingerprints of integrated circuit chips, static random-access memory based physical unclonable function (SRAM PUF) has been regarded as an attractive option for hardware security circuits. Commercial SRAM chips could be used as PUF chips for low cost systems. However, the mismatches existing in most commercial SRAM chips are quite small, which could result in poor stability of SRAM PUF. To address this issue, this paper proposes a novel SRAM PUF stability improvement method using total ionization dose (TID) effect for commercial SRAM chips. The principles of this new method are presented in detail and verified by simulations. Thereafter, the TID experiments are carried out on one kind of commercial SRAM chips and validate that this novel method could reduce the intra-chip hamming distance (??_?????) by two orders of magnitude within the ionizing dose range of 40–100 Krad (SiO2), which is a significant stability improvement. Furthermore, considering the trade-offs of other performance factors, 40 Krad (SiO2) has been regarded as the recommended ionizing dose, which not only makes the stability and uniformity of SRAM PUF attain almost ideal values but also keeps the radiation-induced damage within a limited level.

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: • Aging Injectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Physical Mechanisms Of Stability Improvement Benefiting From Tid Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Novel SRAM PUF Stability Improvement Method Using Ionization Irradiation

Jiang

et al. 2020

Electronics

“…BR-PUF is a combination of SRAM PUFs [28] and APUF [29]. It not only has millions of excitation space like APUF, but also has a bistable ring structure like SRAM PUFs.…”

Section: Bistable Ring Puf (Br-puf)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Huffman-Based Joint Compression and Encryption Scheme for Secure Data Storage Using Physical Unclonable Functions

Liu

et al. 2021

Electronics

With the developments of Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud-computing technologies, cloud servers need storage of a huge volume of IoT data with high throughput and robust security. Joint Compression and Encryption (JCAE) scheme based on Huffman algorithm has been regarded as a promising technology to enhance the data storage method. Existing JCAE schemes still have the following limitations: (1) The keys in the JCAE would be cracked by physical and cloning attacks; (2) The rebuilding of Huffman tree reduces the operational efficiency; (3) The compression ratio should be further improved. In this paper, a Huffman-based JCAE scheme using Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) is proposed. It provides physically secure keys with PUFs, efficient Huffman tree mutation without rebuilding, and practical compression ratio by combining the Lempel-Ziv and Welch (LZW) algorithm. The performance of the instanced PUFs and the derived keys was evaluated. Moreover, our scheme was demonstrated in a file protection system with the average throughput of 473Mbps and the average compression ratio of 0.5586. Finally, the security analysis shows that our scheme resists physical and cloning attacks as well as several classic attacks, thus improving the security level of existing data protection methods.

“…Thorough simulations and measurements of SRAM cells reveal that the mismatch of threshold voltage between P1 and P2 (∆V th , |∆V th | = V th,p1 − V th,p2 ) dominates the power-on process [22][23][24]. Assuming |∆V th | is large enough (e.g., V th,p1 | |V th,p2 ), such a cell is called a strong cell.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved Performance of SRAM-Based True Random Number Generator by Leveraging Irradiation Exposure

Jiang

Dai

et al. 2020

Sensors

Encryption is an important step for secure data transmission, and a true random number generator (TRNG) is a key building block in many encryption algorithms. Static random-access memory (SRAM) chips can be easily available sources of true random numbers, benefiting from noisy SRAM cells whose start-up values flip between different power-on cycles. Embarking from this phenomenon, a novel performance (i.e., randomness and throughput) improvement method of SRAM-based TRNG is proposed, and its implementation can be divided into two phases: irradiation exposure and hardware postprocessing. As the randomness of original SRAM power-on values is fairly low, ionization irradiation is utilized to enhance its randomness, and the min-entropy can increase from about 0.03 to above 0.7 in the total ionizing irradiation (TID) experiments. Additionally, while the data remanence effect hampers obtaining random bitstreams with high speed, the ionization irradiation can also weaken this impact and improve the throughput of TRNG. In the hardware postprocessing stage, Secure Hash Algorithm 256 (SHA-256) is implemented on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) with clock frequency of 200 MHz. It can generate National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) SP 800-22 compatible true random bitstreams with throughput of 178 Mbps utilizing SRAM chip with 1 Mbit memory capacity. Furthermore, according to different application scenarios, the throughput can be widely scalable by adjusting clock frequency and SRAM memory capacity, which makes the novel TRNG design applicable for various Internet of Things (IOT) devices.