Highly reliable XoR Feed Arbiter Physical Unclonable Function (XFAPUF) in 180 nm process for IoT security

Abstract

A Physical unclonable function (PUF) is a promising hardware that augments the security feature for Integrated Circuit (IC) identification and authentication. It is one of the reliable solutions to many security threats as it facilitates die unique identifier feature by increasing the uncertainty and prediction. In this article, a novel XoR Feed Arbiter PUF (XFAPUF) is proposed that minimizes vulnerabilities by introducing more complexity using relatively smaller number of challenges against conventional Arbiter PUF (APUF) techniques that can easily obfuscate intruders. It is implemented in a standard 180 nm CMOS process and validated through Monte-Carlo simulations. The proposed design has significant advantage in arbitration process and produces reliable key generation against manufacturing Process Variations (PVs). Moreover, it offers better uniqueness and reliability than prior works as it achieves promising results, such as uniqueness of 50.03%, diffuseness of 49.52%, and worst-case reliability of 99.81% that ranges from 10 °C to 80 °C, with 10% fluctuations in supply voltage.