Performance analysis of CMOS-memristor hybrid ring oscillator Physically Unclonable Function (RO-PUF)

The memristor is the fourth fundamental passive circuit element, whereas the Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) is a relatively new hardware-based security primitive. PUFs are unclonable due to manufacturing process variations Thus, PUFs are said to have a fingerprint that is unique to each PUF which can be used for security purposes. In this paper, the memristor is applied into a PUF, where a CMOS-memristor hybrid ring oscillator PUF (RO-PUF) is introduced. The proposed RO-PUF circuit is analyzed in terms of uniqueness, uniformity, and bit-aliasing, which were found to be 48.57%, 51.43%, and 51.43%, respectively. The performance metrics results were close to the ideal value of 50%, indicating that the proposed PUF functions well. In future research, this CMOS-memristor RO-PUF is to be used in many hardware security applications and protocols.