Memristors Threshold Based Physical Unclonable Function

This paper presents a novel physical unclonable function (PUF) design that extracts entropy of random threshold voltage variations of a memristor-based cell. Each cell consists of two equivalent memristors in series. Applying an increasing voltage within the threshold range across the cell causes the memristor with a lower threshold to change state before the other. This uncertainty is then digitized to produce a random output. The design has no area/power hungry CMOS comparator overhead. Instead, only an output memristor holds the PUF response bit. The PUF signature is extracted during the set process. The proposed PUF cell which consists of two filament memristor sub-models connected in series is modeled, designed, implemented, and simulated using SystemC-AMS. Simulation results show that the effect of the sneak path does not alter the PUF response.