research-article

MRAM PUF: Using Geometric and Resistive Variations in MRAM Cells

Authors:

Sanjukta BhanjaAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems (JETC), Volume 13, Issue 1

Article No.: 2, Pages 1 - 15

https://doi.org/10.1145/2854154

Published: 06 May 2016 Publication History

Abstract

In this work, we have studied two novel techniques to enhance the performance of existing geometry-based magnetoresistive RAM physically unclonable function (MRAM PUF). Geometry-based MRAM PUFs rely only on geometric variations in MRAM cells that generate preferred ground state in cells and form the basis of digital signature generation. Here we study two novel ways to improve the performance of the geometry-based PUF signature. First, we study how the choice between specific geometries can enhance the reliability of the digital signature. Using fabrications and simulations, we study how the rectangular shape in the PUF cells is more susceptible to lithography-based geometric variations than the elliptical shape of the same aspect ratio. The choice of rectangular over elliptical masks in the lithography process can therefore improve the reliability of the digital signature from PUF. Second, we present a MRAM PUF architecture and study how resistances in MRAM cells can be used to generate analog voltage output that are easier to detect if probed by an adversary. In the new PUF architecture, we have the choice between selection of rows and columns to generate unique and hard-to-predict analog voltage outputs. For a 64-bit response, the analog voltage output can range between 20 and 500 mV, making it tough for an adversary to guess over this wide range of voltages. This work ends with a discussion on the threat resilience ability of the new improved MRAM PUF to attacks from probing-, tampering-, reuse-, and simulation-based models.

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Cited By

Fernandes LKharate PSingh B(2024)The Future of High Performance Computing in Biomimetics and Some ChallengesHigh Performance Computing in Biomimetics10.1007/978-981-97-1017-1_15(287-303)Online publication date: 21-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-1017-1_15
Hu YWu LChen ZHuang YXu XLi KZhang J(2022)STT-MRAM-Based Reliable Weak PUFIEEE Transactions on Computers10.1109/TC.2021.309565771:7(1564-1574)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/TC.2021.3095657
Zahran M(2021)The Future of High-Performance Computing2021 17th International Computer Engineering Conference (ICENCO)10.1109/ICENCO49852.2021.9698918(129-134)Online publication date: 29-Dec-2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICENCO49852.2021.9698918
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Index Terms

MRAM PUF: Using Geometric and Resistive Variations in MRAM Cells
1. Hardware
  1. Emerging technologies
    1. Spintronics and magnetic technologies

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Published In

cover image ACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems

ACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems Volume 13, Issue 1

Special Issue on Secure and Trustworthy Computing

January 2017

208 pages

ISSN:1550-4832

EISSN:1550-4840

DOI:10.1145/2917757

Editor:
Yuan Xie
University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2016 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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ACM Journals for the Design of Smart and Connected Systems

Publication History

Published: 06 May 2016

Accepted: 01 November 2015

Revised: 01 July 2015

Received: 01 December 2014

Published in JETC Volume 13, Issue 1

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Cited By

Fernandes LKharate PSingh B(2024)The Future of High Performance Computing in Biomimetics and Some ChallengesHigh Performance Computing in Biomimetics10.1007/978-981-97-1017-1_15(287-303)Online publication date: 21-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-1017-1_15
Hu YWu LChen ZHuang YXu XLi KZhang J(2022)STT-MRAM-Based Reliable Weak PUFIEEE Transactions on Computers10.1109/TC.2021.309565771:7(1564-1574)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/TC.2021.3095657
Zahran M(2021)The Future of High-Performance Computing2021 17th International Computer Engineering Conference (ICENCO)10.1109/ICENCO49852.2021.9698918(129-134)Online publication date: 29-Dec-2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICENCO49852.2021.9698918
Navau CSort J(2021)Exploiting random phenomena in magnetic materials for data security, logics, and neuromorphic computing: Challenges and prospectsAPL Materials10.1063/5.00554009:7Online publication date: 8-Jul-2021
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0055400
Chien WChang YTsou YKuo SChang C(2020)STT-DPSA: Digital PUF-Based Secure Authentication Using STT-MRAM for the Internet of ThingsMicromachines10.3390/mi1105050211:5(502)Online publication date: 15-May-2020
https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11050502
Ben Dodo SBishnoi RMohanachandran Nair STahoori M(2019)A Spintronics Memory PUF for Resilience Against Cloning CounterfeitIEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems10.1109/TVLSI.2019.293148127:11(2511-2522)Online publication date: Nov-2019
https://doi.org/10.1109/TVLSI.2019.2931481
Bautista Adames IDas JBhanja SCoskun AMargala MBehjat LHan J(2016)Survey of Emerging Technology Based Physical Unclonable FuntionsProceedings of the 26th edition on Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI10.1145/2902961.2903044(317-322)Online publication date: 18-May-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2902961.2903044

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