Novel FinFET Based Physical Unclonable Functions for Efficient Security Integration in the IoT

Abstract

FinFETs were introduced to replace High-K transistors in nanoelectronic applications. From microprocessors to graphic processing units, FinFETs are being used commercially today. Along with the technological advancements in computing and networking, the number of cyber attacks has also increased. Simultaneously, numerous implementations of the Internet of Things (IoT) are already present. In this environment, one small security flaw is enough to place the entire network in danger. Encrypting the communication in such an environment is vital. Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) can be used to encrypt device to device communications and are the main focus of this paper. Two different designs of a Ring Oscillator (RO) PUF are introduced, one with low power consumption trading off device performance and one with high performance trading off device power consumption. There is a 10% decrease in power with the low power model along with a simple design and fabrication. With a trade off of 3.25% of power consumption, the performance of the device can be improved.