Design of High-Performance Gas-Sensing PUF Based on Nanoparticles/Fibers With Composite Morphology

Gas-sensitive sensors for environmental protection and safety monitoring have been widely used in the field of the Internet of Things (IoT). This article proposes a design scheme for a high-performance gas-sensing physical unclonable function (PUF) based on nanoparticles/fibers with composite morphology through the study of PUFs and sensor preparation process deviations. The scheme first uses the electrohydrodynamic (EHD) technique to generate nano-SnO2 material with composite morphology of nanoparticles and nanofibers by high-temperature calcination under different polymer and salt solution concentrations based on the stochasticity of the process, which will be prepared as a gas-sensitive sensor. Second, the response data of the sensor to ethanol and formaldehyde gas at different temperatures are collected, then the PUF algorithm is used to generate multibit high steady-state PUF data. Finally, the safety and reliability of the designed PUF generator were evaluated, and a PUF-based gas authentication scheme was designed based on the difference between the PUFs generated by the sensor for the two gases. The experimental results show that the PUF generator has 99.21% reliability and 49.37% uniqueness, and the generated PUF data passed a series of relevant tests in the NIST 800–22 suite, showing good statistical properties that can be widely used in the field of IoT security.