A novel mixed-signal PUF based on Current Mirror Inverter

Abstract

In contemporary semiconductor technology, intrinsic production process variances are numerous, unpredictable, and unavoidable. This is used advantageously in Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) circuits for increased hardware and software security with small hardware and resource footprints. In this paper, we propose a novel PUF based on the Current Mirror Inverter. To produce instance-specific challenge-response characteristics, the proposed PUF circuit takes advantage of the randomness that processes variation-induced variations in the CMI circuits. The analog fluctuations of the device are transformed into a distinct digital response by the new PUF circuit. The proposed PUF is more dependable since the current mirror assures that the overdrive voltages are stable across all of the transistors in the CMI blocks. The performance parameters of the proposed design were assessed by simulating on 45 nm CMOS technology node. The PUF has a measured uniformity of 0.49 and an inter-HD of 0.50. For each response bit generated from a 64-bit challenge, the proposed design consumes <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$33.7\ \mu\mathrm{W}$</tex> of power, which is lower than other proposed current-based PUF architecture.