A 200 kb/s 36 µw True Random Number Generator Based on Dual Oscillators for IOT Security Application

Abstract

As a module of the internet of things (IOT) information security system, the true random number generator (TRNG) plays an important role in overall performance. In this paper, a low-power TRNG based on dual oscillators is proposed. Two high-frequency cross-coupled oscillators are used to generate high-jitter clock signals, and then the SR latch with power supply below standard power supply voltage is adopted to process the oscillator output to maintain its metastability and increase jitter. The circuit is realized by an SMIC 180 nm 1P6M mixed-signal process. The experimental results show that when power supply voltage is 1.8 V, the circuit outputs a random number bit rate of 200 kb/s, the core area is 0.0039 mm2, and the power consumption is only 36 µw. The output random sequences can pass the NIST SP 800-22 test.