MVL-PUFs: multiple-valued logic physical unclonable functions

Physical unclonable functions (PUFs) are promising hardware security primitives suitable for protecting resource-constrained devices. In this paper, we propose to use multiple-valued logic (MVL) for implementing hardware-efficient PUF integrated circuits. We show that by extracting device mismatch in either current-mode or voltage-mode MVL comparators, the proposed PUF circuits can generate unique and reliable chip identifiers. In order to stabilize PUF responses, we utilize multiple thresholds of MVL comparators, whose outputs are selected and combined according to the sensed temperature. To reduce power and further enhance reliability, the PUF circuits are biased in the weak-inversion region. Evaluation results show that the proposed MVL-PUFs are unique and reliable over a wide temperature range. In addition, they significantly improve the energy efficiency of the state-of-the-art PUFs. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.