Using Nanoresonators with Robust Chaos as HRNGs

TL;DR

This paper explores the use of a nanoelectromechanical resonator exhibiting robust chaos as a hardware random number generator, demonstrating its effectiveness through statistical tests and physical simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel HRNG based on a nanoresonator with robust chaos and validates its randomness and applicability in physical models.

Findings

The nanoresonator produces high-quality random sequences.

Statistical tests confirm the randomness of generated sequences.

The system performs well in simulating physical processes like random walk and Ising model.

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate theoretically the potential of a nanoelectromechanical suspended beam resonator excited by two-external frequencies as a hardware random number generator (HRNG). This system exhibits robust chaos, which is usually required for practical applications of chaos. Taking advantage of the robust chaotic oscillations we consider the beam position as a possible random variable and perform tests to check its randomness. The beam position collected at fixed time intervals is used to create a set of values that is a candidate for a random sequence of numbers. To determine how close to a random sequence this set is we perform several known statistical tests of randomness. The performance of the random sequence in the simulation of two relevant physical problems, the random walk and the Ising model, is also investigated. An excellent overall performance of the system as a random number generator is obtained.