Thermal Brownian Motion of Skyrmion for True Random Number Generation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a room-temperature skyrmion-based true random number generator utilizing thermal Brownian motion, offering a simple, stable, and adjustable method verified by NIST tests for high-quality randomness.

Contribution

It presents a novel, probability-adjustable TRNG based on skyrmion thermal motion in a confined geometry, verified through micromagnetic simulations and NIST testing.

Findings

Successful implementation of skyrmion-based TRNG at room temperature

Achieved adjustable ratio of 0s and 1s via voltage-controlled anisotropy

NIST tests confirm high-quality randomness of generated numbers

Abstract

The true random number generators (TRNGs) have received extensive attention because of their wide applications in information transmission and encryption. The true random numbers generated by TRNG are typically applied to the encryption algorithm or security protocol of the information security core. Recently, TRNGs have also been employed in emerging stochastic computing paradigm for reducing power consumption. Roughly speaking, TRNG can be divided into circuits-based, e.g., oscillator sampling or directly noise amplifying; and quantum physics-based, e.g., photoelectric effect. The former generally requires a large area and has a large power consumption, whereas the latter is intrinsic random but is more difficult to implement and usually requires additional post-processing circuitry. Very recently, magnetic skyrmion has become a promising candidate for implementing TRNG because of their nanometer size, high stability, and intrinsic thermal Brownian motion dynamics. In this work, we propose a TRNG based on continuous skyrmion thermal Brownian motion in a confined geometry at room temperature. True random bitstream can be easily obtained by periodically detecting the relative position of the skyrmion without the need for additional current pulses. More importantly, we implement a probability-adjustable TRNG, in which a desired ratio of 0 and 1 can be acquired by adding an anisotropy gradient through voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) effect. The behaviors of the skyrmion-based TRNG are verified by using micromagnetic simulations. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) test results demonstrate that our proposed random number generator is TRNG with good randomness. Our research provides a new perspective for efficient TRNG realization.