Electromagnetically unclonable functions generated by non-Hermitian absorber-emitter

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Electrical Engineering
• Computer Science

Background:

• Physically unclonable functions (PUFs) are hardware security primitives crucial for protecting information against cyberattacks and reverse engineering.
• Existing PUFs rely on integrated circuit properties, creating a need for alternative, robust security solutions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel electromagnetic physically unclonable function (PUF) based on non-Hermitian parity-time (PT)-symmetric structures.
• To demonstrate the PUF's ability to generate unique security keys by amplifying entropy from manufacturing variations.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing the self-dual absorber-emitter singularity in PT-symmetric structures to create a unique PUF.
• Exploiting sensitive responses to perturbations at the singular point to amplify entropy.
• Evaluating PUF security metrics, including randomness and uniqueness.
• Testing robustness against machine learning-assisted attacks (Fourier regression, GANs).

Main Results:

• The proposed electromagnetic PUF exhibits high randomness and uniqueness, crucial for security applications.
• The PUF demonstrates robustness against advanced machine learning-based attack strategies.
• The concept is shown to be wavelength-scalable across various electromagnetic spectrum ranges.

Conclusions:

• The novel electromagnetic PUF offers a promising new direction for hardware security.
• This approach provides a scalable and robust solution for cryptography and encryption applications.
• The use of PT-symmetric structures in PUFs opens avenues for future research in secure hardware design.