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Published on: June 18, 2020
Extreme Temperature Cryptography Based On Nitrogen-Incorporated Ultrananocrystalline Diamond.
Akshay Wali1, Daniel Rosenmann1, Yuzi Liu1
1Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States.
ACS Nano
|May 17, 2026
Summary
A new diamond-based cryptographic primitive uses nitrogen-incorporated ultrananocrystalline diamond (n-UNCD) films as a stable entropy source for extreme temperatures. This technology generates reliable cryptographic keys even after exposure to 700 °C, outperforming conventional semiconductor platforms.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Cryptography
- Solid-State Physics
Background:
- Extreme temperature stability is crucial for physical entropy sources in cryptography for applications like deep space exploration and geothermal energy harvesting.
- Conventional semiconductor platforms degrade above 200 °C, limiting their use in high-temperature cryptographic key generation.
- A need exists for robust entropy sources capable of withstanding extreme thermal conditions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a novel cryptographic primitive utilizing a diamond-based material for extreme temperature environments.
- To assess the stability and reliability of cryptographic keys generated from a defect-rich grain boundary network in nitrogen-incorporated ultrananocrystalline diamond (n-UNCD) films at high temperatures.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of a cryptographic primitive using nitrogen-incorporated ultrananocrystalline diamond (n-UNCD) films.
- Testing the material's stability under extreme temperatures (700 °C for 54 hours) and thermal cycling.
- Evaluation of generated cryptographic keys using NIST SP 800 and SP 800-90B standards, alongside cryptographic metrics and resilience tests against supply bias and machine learning attacks.
- Material characterization using high-resolution energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and Raman spectroscopy.
Main Results:
- The n-UNCD based primitive generated cryptographically strong keys that remained stable after exposure to 700 °C for 54 hours and thermal cycling.
- Generated keys exhibited excellent bit uniformity, entropy, and Hamming distances, passing NIST SP 800 and SP 800-90B tests.
- The keys demonstrated resilience to supply bias variations and a regression-based machine learning attack.
- Material analysis confirmed the thermal stability and chemical inertness of the n-UNCD film, with no significant metal diffusion or bonding configuration changes.
Conclusions:
- Nitrogen-incorporated ultrananocrystalline diamond (n-UNCD) films serve as a robust entropy source for extreme environment cryptography.
- This diamond-based approach significantly expands the operational temperature limits for hardware security platforms.
- The findings present a promising solution for secure cryptographic key generation in demanding environments such as deep space and geothermal energy systems.
