Exploiting metastability and thermal noise to build a reconfigurable hardware random number generator

Daihyun Lim; Damith C. Ranasinghe; Srinivas Devadas; Behnam Jamali; Derek Abbott; Peter H. Cole

doi:10.1117/12.620306

23 May 2005 Exploiting metastability and thermal noise to build a reconfigurable hardware random number generator

Daihyun Lim, Damith C. Ranasinghe, Srinivas Devadas, Behnam Jamali, Derek Abbott, Peter H. Cole

Proceedings Volume 5844, Noise in Devices and Circuits III; (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.620306
Event: SPIE Third International Symposium on Fluctuations and Noise, 2005, Austin, Texas, United States

Abstract

While pseudo random number generators based on computational complexity are widely used for most of cryptographic applications and probabilistic simulations, the generation of true random numbers based on physical randomness is required to guarantee the advanced security of cryptographic systems. In this paper we present a method to exploit manufacturing variations, metastablity, and thermal noise in integrated circuits to generate random numbers. This metastability based physical random number generator provides a compact and low-power solution which can be fabricated using standard IC manufacturing processes. Test-chips were fabricated in TSMC 0.18um process and experimental results show that the generated random bits pass standard randomness tests successfully. The operation of the proposed scheme is robust against environmental changes since it can be re-calibrated to new environmental conditions such as temperature and power supply voltage.

Citation Download Citation

Daihyun Lim, Damith C. Ranasinghe, Srinivas Devadas, Behnam Jamali, Derek Abbott, and Peter H. Cole "Exploiting metastability and thermal noise to build a reconfigurable hardware random number generator", Proc. SPIE 5844, Noise in Devices and Circuits III, (23 May 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.620306

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