Design and Optimization of Strong Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) Based on RRAM Array

Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) based on high-density RRAM array is suitable for hardware security applications. In this work, an RRAM-based strong PUF leveraging random resistance variation is experimentally demonstrated. The number of challenge response pairs increase significantly compared with the previous weak PUF design. The PUF reliability is optimized through extending the resistance distribution, and a novel multiple small SET operation method is utilized to achieve the above purpose. The experimental results show that the intra-HD (intra-chip Hamming distance) reduced from similar to 8% to similar to 3.5% after using the optimized method. The inter-HD (inter-chip Hamming distance) maintains close to the ideal value 50%.