Physically unclonable functions: A study on the state of the art and future research directions

Abstract

The idea of using intrinsic random physical features to identify objects, systems, and people is not new. Fingerprint identification of humans dates at least back to the nineteenth century [21] and led to the field of biometrics. In the 1980s and 1990s of the twentieth century, random patterns in paper and optical tokens were used for unique identification of currency notes and strategic arms [2, 8, 53]. A formalization of this concept was introduced in the very beginning of the twenty-first century, first as physical one-way functions [41, 42], physical random functions [13], and finally as physical(ly) unclonable functions or PUFs.1 In the years following this introduction, an increasing number of new types of PUFs were proposed, with a tendency toward more integrated constructions. The practical relevance of PUFs for security applications was recognized from the start, with a special focus on the promising properties of physical unclonability and tamper evidence.