Ultra-Low-Power FinFETs-Based TPCA-PUF Circuit for Secure IoT Devices

Area of Science:

• Semiconductor Device Physics
• Integrated Circuit Design
• Cybersecurity Hardware

Background:

• Internet of Things (IoT) devices require low-power, secure cryptographic solutions.
• Traditional CMOS technology faces challenges with static and dynamic power consumption.
• FinFET technology offers advantages like reduced leakage and lower operating voltage.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a two-phase clocking adiabatic physical unclonable function (TPCA-PUF) circuit in FinFET technology.
• To investigate the performance of TPCA-PUF in shorted-gate (SG) and independent-gate (IG) modes under varying conditions.
• To compare the proposed TPCA-PUF with QUALPFU-based FinFETs.

Main Methods:

• Simulation of a 4-bits TPCA-PUF circuit using 45 nm FinFET technology.
• Analysis under various ambient temperatures, process variations, and supply voltage fluctuations (±20%).
• Comparison based on energy dissipation, uniqueness, reliability, and bit-error-rate (BER).

Main Results:

• The TPCA-PUF achieved 50.13% uniqueness, 99.57% reliability, and 0.43% BER.
• Low start-up power of 18.32 nW and energy consumption of 2.3 fJ/bit/cycle at 27 °C.
• Demonstrated robustness across different operating conditions.

Conclusions:

• The FinFET-based TPCA-PUF is a viable solution for low-power and secure IoT applications.
• The proposed design offers superior performance compared to existing methods.
• FinFETs are well-suited for implementing energy-efficient and secure PUF circuits.