Sizing of SRAM Cell with Voltage Biasing Techniques for Reliability Enhancement of Memory and PUF Functions

Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) has recently been developed into a physical unclonable function (PUF) for generating chip-unique signatures for hardware cryptography. The most compelling issue in designing a good SRAM-based PUF (SPUF) is that while maximizing the mismatches between the transistor...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chip-Hong Chang, Chao Qun Liu, Le Zhang, Zhi Hui Kong
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2016-08-01
Series:Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/2079-9268/6/3/16
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Summary:Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) has recently been developed into a physical unclonable function (PUF) for generating chip-unique signatures for hardware cryptography. The most compelling issue in designing a good SRAM-based PUF (SPUF) is that while maximizing the mismatches between the transistors in the cross-coupled inverters improves the quality of the SPUF, this ironically also gives rise to increased memory read/write failures. For this reason, the memory cells of existing SPUFs cannot be reused as storage elements, which increases the overheads of cryptographic system where long signatures and high-density storage are both required. This paper presents a novel design methodology for dual-mode SRAM cell optimization. The design conflicts are resolved by using word-line voltage modulation, dynamic voltage scaling, negative bit-line and adaptive body bias techniques to compensate for reliability degradation due to transistor downsizing. The augmented circuit-level techniques expand the design space to achieve a good solution to fulfill several otherwise contradicting key design qualities for both modes of operation, as evinced by our statistical analysis and simulation results based on complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) 45 nm bulk Predictive Technology Model.
ISSN:2079-9268