A lightweight reversible multi-mode physical unclonable function☆

Physical Unclonable Function (PUF), a hardware security primitive capable of generating unique fingerprints for chips, is crucial for Internet of Things (IoT) security. However, substantial hardware overhead, low reliability, and high power consumption have hindered the broad application of PUFs in lightweight IoT devices. This paper proposes a solution by leveraging the reversible logic paradigm in PUF design. Specifically, a Multi-Mode (M2) PUF is introduced and is based on configurable ring oscillators and transient effect rings. By configuring signal paths and internal delays, the M2 PUF efficiently generates numerous Challenge-Response Pairs (CRPs) with minimal hardware resources. Implemented on Xilinx Spartan-6 and Xilinx Virtex-7 FPGA platforms, it requires only 1.6% of the hardware resources to generate a 1-bit response, significantly lower than existing state-of-theart PUF solutions. The performance metrics for uniqueness, average native reliability, and reliability under different voltage conditions are impressive, registering at 48.23 %, 98.44 %, and 96.08 %, respectively. This structure represents an ideal solution for lightweight PUF design.