On-chip nonlinear optical physical unclonable function based on a thin-film lithium niobate array

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Materials Science
• Integrated Optics
• Quantum Information Science

Background:

• Physical unclonable functions (PUFs) are crucial for device authentication.
• Existing PUF schemes face challenges in scalability and security.
• Integrated photonics offers potential for novel PUF architectures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and simulate a novel optical physical unclonable function (PUF) scheme.
• To leverage nonlinear modulation in a thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) scattering array.
• To enhance security authentication for Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Main Methods:

• Simulations of wavelength-dependent scattering in a silica grating.
• Modeling of nonlinear mutual temporal modulation in a TFLN array.
• Analysis of PUF properties: unpredictability, reproducibility, and unclonability.
• Security analysis of an identity authentication scheme against link attacks.

Main Results:

• Confirmed theoretical basis for temporal encryption via mutual modulation.
• Verified PUF unpredictability, reproducibility, and unclonability through simulations.
• Demonstrated a strategy to expand the challenge-response pair (CRP) space to approximately one million.
• Proposed and analyzed an identity authentication scheme.

Conclusions:

• The proposed TFLN PUF scheme is theoretically sound and computationally verified.
• The TFLN PUF offers a large CRP space and robust security.
• This work provides a foundation for TFLN PUF implementation and a new security solution for IoT devices.