CMOS-Mems Physical Unclonable Functions Based on Unbalanced Bimodal Frequency Combs
Journal
IEEE 38th International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS)
Part Of
38th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems
Start Page
137
End Page
140
Date Issued
2025-01-19
Author(s)
Ting-Yi Chen
Abstract
This work demonstrates for the first time micromechanical physical unclonable functions (PUFs) that leverage the unbalanced bimodal frequency combs of the internal-resonating MEMS resonator. In particular, this work utilizes the nonlinear CMOS-MEMS resonator that previously demonstrated the true random number generation (TRNG) based on the saddle-node on an invariant circle (SNIC) bifurcation point and operates it away from bifurcation, allowing stable frequency comb generation. Here, the frequency comb patterns serve as the process-variation-derived response upon a challenge determined by a particular driving frequency value, together forming a challenge-response pair. Digitizing the amplitude of the frequency comb with 16 bits for the highest 8 comb teeth generates a total of 16 × 8 = 128 PUF bits for a particular driving frequency with a single resonator. This device advances CMOS-MEMS technology into a new application area of MEMS-based PUF security.
Event(s)
38th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, MEMS 2025, Kaohsiung, 19 January 2025 through 23 January 2025. Code 207710
Subjects
CMOS-MEMS platform
frequency combs
internal resonance
nonlinear resonator
Physical unclonable function
PUF
Publisher
IEEE
Type
conference paper