TWC: Small: Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) Enhancements Via Lithography and Design Partnership

硅物理不可克隆功能（PUF）是嵌入在IC中的补充电路，其产生对于其原生IC唯一的签名。该签名可用于认证、数据保护和安全通信。PUF依赖于制造过程中存在的不可控变化，导致电路参数呈现随机性。用于PUF设计的当前方法主要研究电路和架构方面。由于缺乏对制造工艺变化如何影响PUF响应的确切理解，PUF质量受到严重损害。许多现有的工作假设制造过程是一个黑盒子。这导致一些机会未被利用。本研究调查了PUF增强的根本不同方法。它利用了在可制造性设计相关研究工作中开发的制造随机性的量化模型。本研究将探讨光罩、电路与布图技术的沿着性，使矽PUFs得以改良，进而增加其被采用的可能性。我们的方法对于半导体制造公司和无晶圆厂设计公司都很有用。在教育方面，博士生应参与这项工作的核心方面，而本科生应用于数据收集，分析和试验台开发。最后，该项目计划通过在公共领域提供这项研究产生的所有文物来加强研究和教育的基础设施。还应组织进一步的外展工作，例如辅导、小组讨论等。

Silicon physically unclonable function (PUF) is a supplemental circuit embedded in an IC which generates signatures unique to its native IC. This signature could be used for authentication, protection of data and secure communication. PUFs rely on the presence of uncontrollable variations in the fabrication process causing the circuit parameters to exhibit randomness. Current approaches for PUF design have mostly investigated circuit and architectural aspects. PUF quality is severely marred by a lack of understanding of exactly how fabrication process variations impact the PUF responses. Much of the existing work assumes the fabrication process to be a black box. This results in several opportunities being unutilized. This research investigates fundamentally different approaches to PUF enhancements. It leverages quantified models for fabrication randomness that have been developed in Design for Manufacturability related research endeavors. This research looks into mask, circuit and layout level techniques along with their interdependence.This work enables improved silicon PUFs thereby increasing the possibility of their adoption. Our approaches would be useful for both semiconductor manufacturing companies and fab-less design houses. On an education front, PhD students shall be involved in the core aspect of this work while undergraduates shall be used for data collection, analysis and test-bed development. Lastly, this project plans to enhance infrastructure for research and education by making available all the artifacts produced by this research in public domain. Further outreach efforts such as tutorials, panel discussions, etc. shall also be organized.