Reconfigurable Physical Unclonable Function based on SOT-MRAM Chips

TL;DR

This paper introduces a reconfigurable PUF based on SOT-MRAM chips that maintains security and reconfiguration capabilities across various temperatures, enhancing IoT device security.

Contribution

It proposes a dual-pulse reconfiguration strategy for SOT-MRAM based rPUFs that operates reliably over wide temperature ranges without complex feedback mechanisms.

Findings

Achieves temperature resilience in reconfigurable PUFs

Enables real-time reconfiguration without environmental feedback

Supports secure IoT hardware implementations

Abstract

Hardware-based security primitives have become critical to enhancing information security in the Internet of Things (IoT) era. Physical unclonable functions (PUFs) utilize the inherent variations in the manufacturing process to generate cryptographic keys unique to a device. Reconfigurable PUFs (rPUFs) can update cryptographic keys for enhanced security in dynamic operational scenarios involving huge amounts of data, which makes them suitable for implementation in CMOS-integrated spin-orbit torque magnetic random access memory (SOT-MRAM) chips. However, a key challenge is achieving real-time reconfiguration independent of the environmental conditions, particularly the operating temperature. We propose a dual-pulse reconfiguration strategy for rPUFs in CMOS-integrated SOT-MRAM chips that effectively widens the operating window and achieves resilience across a wide range of operating temperatures without the need for dynamic feedback that overly complicates circuit design. The proposed strategy lays a solid foundation for the next generation of hardware-based security primitives to protect IoT architectures.