Enhancing Strong PUF Security With Nonmonotonic Response Quantization

Strong physical unclonable functions (PUFs) provide a low-cost authentication primitive for resource-constrained devices. However, most strong PUF architectures can be modeled through learning algorithms with limited number of CRPs. In this article, we introduce the concept nonmonotonic response quantization PUFs. Responses depend not only on which path is faster but also distance between arriving signals. Our experiments show that resulting has increased security against attacks. To demonstrate, designed and implemented nonmonotonically quantized ring oscillator-based in 65-nm technology. Measurement results nearly ideal uniformity uniqueness bit error rate 13.4% over temperature range from 0 °C to 50 °C.