Characterization of the bistable ring PUF

Abstract

The bistable ring physical(ly) unclonable function (BR-PUF) is a novel electrical intrinsic PUF design for physical cryptography. FPGA prototyping has provided a proof-of-concept, showing that the BR-PUF could be a promising candidate for strong PUFs. However, due to the limitations (device resources, placement and routing) of FPGA prototyping, the effectiveness of a practical ASIC implementation of the BR-PUF could not be validated. This paper characterizes the BR-PUF further through transistor-level simulations. Based on process variation, mismatch, and noise models provided or suggested by industry, these simulations are able to provide predictions on the figures-of-merit of ASIC implementations of the BR-PUF. This paper also suggests a more secure way of using the BR-PUF based on its supply voltage sensitivity. © 2012 EDAA.