Robust key extraction from physical uncloneable functions

Abstract

Physical Uncloneable Functions (PUFs) can be used as a cost-effective means to store key material in an uncloneable way. Due to the fact that the key material is obtained by performing measurements on a physical system, noise is inevitably present in each readout. In this paper we present a number of methods that improve the robustness of bit-string extraction from noisy PUF measurements in general, and in particular for optical PUFs. We describe a practical implementation in the case of optical PUFs and show experimental results. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.