Integrated circuit design for physical unclonable function using differential amplifiers

Abstract

A physical unclonable function (PUF) based on process variations on silicon wafers is a very promising technology which finds various applications in identification and authentication, but only a few integrated circuits have been reported so far. As those circuits are vulnerable to power supply noises, switching noises and environmental variations, they lead to a reliability issue such as time-varying or metastable responses. To resolve this issue, this letter proposes a new integrated circuit design for PUFs using differential amplifiers. The feasibility of the proposed circuit has been theoretically analyzed and validated through HSPICE simulations for the previous and proposed circuits.