Practical Experiments to Evaluate Quality Metrics of MRAM-Based Physical Unclonable Functions

Process variations in the manufacturing of digital circuits can be leveraged to design Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) that are extensively employed in hardware-based security. Different PUFs based on Magnetic Random-Access-Memory (MRAM) devices have been studied and proposed in the literature....

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Main Authors: Arash Nejat, Frederic Ouattara, Mohammad Mohammadinodoushan, Bertrand Cambou, Ken Mackay, Lionel Torres
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2020-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9200460/
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author Arash Nejat
Frederic Ouattara
Mohammad Mohammadinodoushan
Bertrand Cambou
Ken Mackay
Lionel Torres
author_facet Arash Nejat
Frederic Ouattara
Mohammad Mohammadinodoushan
Bertrand Cambou
Ken Mackay
Lionel Torres
author_sort Arash Nejat
collection DOAJ
description Process variations in the manufacturing of digital circuits can be leveraged to design Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) that are extensively employed in hardware-based security. Different PUFs based on Magnetic Random-Access-Memory (MRAM) devices have been studied and proposed in the literature. However, most of these studies have been simulation-based, which do not fully capture the physical reality. We present experimental results on a PUF implemented on dies fabricated with a type of the MRAM technology namely Thermally-Assisted-Switching MRAM (TAS-MRAM). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental validation of a TAS-MRAM-based PUF. We demonstrate how voltage values used for writing in the TAS-MRAM cells can make stochastic behaviors required for PUF design. The analysis of the obtained results provides some preliminary findings on the practical application of TAS-MRAM-based PUFs in authentication protocols. Besides, the results show that for key-generation protocols, one of the standard error correction methods should be employed if the proposed PUF is used.
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spelling doaj.art-901bb18fd3dc46e8be5b6b6b6521c3f52022-12-21T22:02:34ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362020-01-01817604217604910.1109/ACCESS.2020.30245989200460Practical Experiments to Evaluate Quality Metrics of MRAM-Based Physical Unclonable FunctionsArash Nejat0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2276-1455Frederic Ouattara1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2498-8140Mohammad Mohammadinodoushan2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1530-4480Bertrand Cambou3Ken Mackay4Lionel Torres5LIRMM, University of Montpellier, CNRS, Montpellier, FranceLIRMM, University of Montpellier, CNRS, Montpellier, FranceSchool of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USASchool of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USACrocus Technology Grenoble, Grenoble, FranceLIRMM, University of Montpellier, CNRS, Montpellier, FranceProcess variations in the manufacturing of digital circuits can be leveraged to design Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) that are extensively employed in hardware-based security. Different PUFs based on Magnetic Random-Access-Memory (MRAM) devices have been studied and proposed in the literature. However, most of these studies have been simulation-based, which do not fully capture the physical reality. We present experimental results on a PUF implemented on dies fabricated with a type of the MRAM technology namely Thermally-Assisted-Switching MRAM (TAS-MRAM). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental validation of a TAS-MRAM-based PUF. We demonstrate how voltage values used for writing in the TAS-MRAM cells can make stochastic behaviors required for PUF design. The analysis of the obtained results provides some preliminary findings on the practical application of TAS-MRAM-based PUFs in authentication protocols. Besides, the results show that for key-generation protocols, one of the standard error correction methods should be employed if the proposed PUF is used.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9200460/Physical unclonable functionsmagnetic RAMthermally assisted switching MRAM
spellingShingle Arash Nejat
Frederic Ouattara
Mohammad Mohammadinodoushan
Bertrand Cambou
Ken Mackay
Lionel Torres
Practical Experiments to Evaluate Quality Metrics of MRAM-Based Physical Unclonable Functions
IEEE Access
Physical unclonable functions
magnetic RAM
thermally assisted switching MRAM
title Practical Experiments to Evaluate Quality Metrics of MRAM-Based Physical Unclonable Functions
title_full Practical Experiments to Evaluate Quality Metrics of MRAM-Based Physical Unclonable Functions
title_fullStr Practical Experiments to Evaluate Quality Metrics of MRAM-Based Physical Unclonable Functions
title_full_unstemmed Practical Experiments to Evaluate Quality Metrics of MRAM-Based Physical Unclonable Functions
title_short Practical Experiments to Evaluate Quality Metrics of MRAM-Based Physical Unclonable Functions
title_sort practical experiments to evaluate quality metrics of mram based physical unclonable functions
topic Physical unclonable functions
magnetic RAM
thermally assisted switching MRAM
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9200460/
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