Eigenanalysis of morphological diversity in silicon random nanostructures formed via resist collapse

TL;DR

This study uses eigenanalysis to quantify the vast morphological diversity in silicon nanostructures created by resist collapse, highlighting their potential for secure information applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel eigenanalysis method to quantify and interpret the morphological diversity of silicon nanostructures formed via resist collapse.

Findings

Approximately 10^115 possible identities per 0.18-um^2 area

Eigenanalysis provides a physical and quantitative understanding of structural diversity

Method applicable to other materials and device architectures

Abstract

This paper demonstrates eigenanalysis to quantitatively reveal the diversity and capacity of identities offered by the morphological diversity in silicon nanostructures formed via random collapse of resist. The analysis suggests that approximately 10^115 possible identities are provided per 0.18-um^2 area of nanostructures, indicating that nanoscale morphological signatures will be extremely useful for future information security applications where securing identities is critical. The eigenanalysis provides an intuitive physical picture and quantitative characterization of the diversity of structural fluctuations while unifying measurement stability concerns, which will be widely applicable to other materials, devices, and system architectures.