A PUF design for secure FPGA-based embedded systems

Abstract

The concept of having an integrated circuit (IC) generate its own unique digital signature has broad application in areas such as embedded systems security, and IP/IC counter-piracy. Physically unclonable functions (PUFs) are circuits that compute a unique signature for a given IC based on the process variations inherent in the IC manufacturing process. This paper presents the first PUF design specifically targeted for field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Our novel design makes use of the underlying FPGA architecture, and unlike prior published PUFs, the proposed PUF can be naturally embedded into a design's HDL, consuming very little area, and does not require the use of "hard macros" with fixed routing. Measured results on the Xilinx Virtex-5 65 nm FPGA demonstrate PUF signatures to be both unique and reliable under temperature variation.