CMOS-Compatible Silicon Optical Scattering Physical Unclonable Function for Robust Authentication

Abstract

Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) emerges as a competitive hardware security primitive for authentication in embedded and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. However, current silicon optical PUF still encounters a challenging balance among reliable security, environmental stability, practical usability, and photonic-electronic integration capability. To address this task, we present the design, implementation and evaluation of silicon optical scattering PUF (SOSPUF) integrated on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. The SOSPUF exhibits exceptional reliability, inherent unclonability and strong unpredictability. It demonstrates robust tolerance against polarization variations and input power fluctuations, while its manageable sensitivity to wavelength and temperature can be mitigated through appropriate environmental controls. A total authentication error rate as low as 1.12 × 10−19 is established even under power-unstable and polarization-unstable conditions. The SOSPUF supports monolithic or heterogeneous integration with electronic circuits, rendering it a feasible candidate for robust authentication in advanced integrated systems.