Publication

In this work, an SRAM macro uniquely extracting static entropy from every transistor in unmodified 6T bitcells is presented, achieving for the first time 6-bit/bitcell entropy. When operating as a conventional physically unclonable function (PUF), it achieves a state-of-the-art 296% PUF-to-SRAM capacity ratio without any error correcting code (ECC), retaining its energy and area efficiency at the system level. In addition, the PUF output has native cryptographic-grade quality after one-time self-calibration, uniquely suppressing any entropy post-processing circuitry. As further operating mode, the proposed SRAM macro performs data fingerprinting by exploiting its unique data-dependent response. Data fingerprinting represents an additional layer of security supporting provenance assurance of data and user authentication in real time or in retrospect. Competitive 134-F2/bit area efficiency is demonstrated in 28 nm with minor modification of conventional SRAM periphery.

Researcher/Author: 

Lead Co-Investigator – Prof Massimo Alioto

Researchers – Tianqi Wang; Joydeep Basu; Viveka Konandur Rajanna

Published in:  IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits 

Date Added : 17 September 2025

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DOI:  

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11168123