Physical unclonable function from an integrated photonic interferometer

Abstract

Systems and methods of producing unclonable devices are disclosed. Robust optical physical unclonable function devices use disordered photonic integrated circuits. Optical physical unclonable functions based on speckle patterns, chaos, or ‘strong’ disorder are so far notoriously sensitive to probing and/or environmental variations. A presently disclosed optical physical unclonable function is designed for robustness against fluctuations in optical angular/spatial alignment, polarization, and temperature using an integrated quasicrystal interferometer which sensitively probes disorder. All modes are engineered to exhibit approximately the same confinement factor in the predominant thermo-optic medium (e.g., silicon) and for constraining the transverse spatial-mode and polarization degrees of freedom. Silicon photonic quasicrystal interferometry is used for secure hardware applications.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.