Physical Unclonable Functions Based on the Post-Breakdown Current of FDSOI Nanowire Transistors

Abstract

Gate oxide Dielectric Breakdown (BD) in Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) structures is a random process, which can be exploited in cryptography applications. Here, the post-BD current in Fully Depleted Silicon on Insulator (FDSOI) high-k Ω-Gate nanowire (NW) transistors is the entropy source used to implement Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs). The PUF uniformity and uniqueness were evaluated for cryptographic keys generation. Different features that can affect the PUF reliability were analyzed in detail, such as operation temperature, power supply noise and time and cycle-to-cycle stability. The proposed PUFs are resilient to temperature and electrical stress attacks, making them highly suitable for security applications.