Electrically‐Reconfigurable Extremely‐High Density Physical Unclonable Cryptographic Keys Based on Aurivillius Ferroelectrics

Abstract

AbstractIn the era of information, emerging hardware security primitives, i.e., hardware random number generators and physically unclonable functions, hold profound promise for the establishment of exceptionally secure network information systems. Nonetheless, these potential solutions are constrained by inherent drawbacks, including the need for additional error correction circuits or algorithms, heightened susceptibility to environmental interference, and limited data density. This paper demonstrates the extremely high‐density, physical‐unclonable cryptographic keys by harnessing stochastically ferroelectric domain polarizations in Aurivillius ferroelectric material CaBi2Nb2O9 (CBNO). Ferroelectric polarization of CBNO nanodomains can serve as a robust source of physical unclonable entropy. Through the application of high‐speed voltage pulses, the inherent randomness of ferroelectric polarizations can be enhanced, thereby yielding cryptographic keys characterized by remarkable uniformity, uniqueness, and negligible environmental sensitivity. More importantly, the voltage pulse operations facilitate the configurability of the ferroelectric cryptographic keys with no correlation. An unprecedented data density of 435 Gbit µm−2 is therefore achievable with a miniaturized CBNO of less than 1 um2. Notably, the reconfigured keys successfully pass the National Institute of Standards and Technology random number tests without requiring additional post‐processing steps. Emanating from the inherent attributes of the material, these high‐density ferroelectric keys confer intrinsic advantages to information security, evincing substantial resistance to duplication or cloning.