Physical Unclonable Functions based Hardware Obfuscation Techniques: A State of the Art

A clear majority of electronic devices applications used in our daily life require a reliable, secure architecture, e.g., healthcare, social security cards, electronic meters, and smart homes. As a result, many studies are trying to develop appropriate solutions to tackle hardware security threats such as IC piracy, IC overbuilding, reverse engineering, counterfeiting, and tampering. Hardware obfuscation has been introduced as one of the leading robust, low-cost security solutions against different security threats, especially when combined with physical unclonable functions. Considering the inherent irreproducibility of PUFs, this method can provide a high-level security system. However, finding an applicable existent PUF or implementing a new PUF design that meets each hardware obfuscation requirements is not a trivial task. This study reviews and discusses hardware security systems based on PUFs inherited variations and the corresponding hardware obfuscation approaches.