Demonstration of high-reconfigurability and low-power strong physical unclonable function empowered by FeFET cycle-to-cycle variation and charge-domain computing

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 189 - 13
• Main Authors: Li, Taixin, Guo, Xinrui, Müller, Franz, Abdulazhanov, Sukhrob, Ma, Xiaoyang, Zhong, Hongtao, Liu, Yongpan, Narayanan, Vijaykrishnan, Yang, Huazhong, Ni, Kai, Kämpfe, Thomas, Li, Xueqing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 02.01.2025; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/166/987; 639/301/1005/1007; 639/766/1130/2798; 639/925/927/1007; Authentication; Computation; Domains; Feasibility; Ferroelectric materials; Ferroelectricity; Field effect transistors; Humanities and Social Sciences; Internet of Things; Machine learning; multidisciplinary; Parameter robustness; Power management; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Semiconductor devices; Transistors; Variation; Workflow
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-55380-x

Physical unclonable functions (PUFs) are of immense potential in authentication scenarios for Internet of Things (IoT) devices. For creditable and lightweight PUF applications, key attributes, including low power, high reconfigurability and large challenge-response pair (CRP) space, are desirable. Here, we report a ferroelectric field-effect transistor (FeFET)-based strong PUF with high reconfigurability and low power, which leverages the FeFET cycle-to-cycle variation throughout the workflow and introduces charge-domain in-memory computing. The proposed PUF cells are fabricated at 28 nm node, and the experimental measurements reveal high uniformity, uniqueness and repeatability. Remarkably, our PUF achieves near-ideal reconfigurability and ultra-low 1.89fJ per bit readout energy, significantly outperforming the state-of-the-art PUFs. Furthermore, we show that the PUF is robust against parameter variations and resilient to machine learning (ML) attacks. These performances highlight the great promise of the FeFET-based strong PUF as a feasible IoT security solution. Physical unclonable functions (PUFs) are important in authentication applications for Internet of Things devices. This work reports a ferroelectric field-effect transistor-based strong PUF utilizing the transistor cycle-to-cycle variation and verifies its feasibility using 28 nm HKMG technology.