Reducing amount of helper data in silicon physical unclonable functions via lossy compression without production-time error characterization

A computer program product for reducing the amount of helper data that needs to be stored, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code comprising the programming instructions for:

• determining individual cell bit-error-rates of a physical unclonable function;
• formulating a lossy compression problem using said determined individual cell bit-error-rates of said physical unclonable function;
• solving said formulated lossy compression problem;
• storing a solution to said formulated lossy compression problem as a map representing reliable cells in a memory of a physical unclonable function system;
• and
• constructing helper data to be utilized by a fuzzy extractor using said map representing reliable cells and error correction code helper data.

A system, comprising:

• a memory unit for storing a computer program for reducing the amount of helper data that needs to be stored;
• and
• a processor coupled to the memory unit, wherein the processor is configured to execute the program instructions of the computer program comprising:
• determining individual cell bit-error-rates of a physical unclonable function;
• formulating a lossy compression problem using said determined individual cell bit-error-rates of said physical unclonable function;
• solving said formulated lossy compression problem;
• storing a solution to said formulated lossy compression problem as a map representing reliable cells in a memory of a physical unclonable function system;
• and
• constructing helper data to be utilized by a fuzzy extractor using said map representing reliable cells and error correction code helper data.

A method for reducing the amount of helper data that needs to be stored, the method comprising:

• extracting distribution of cells' across-temperature bit-error-rates using a population-based analysis at a technology development phase;
• measuring only nominal one-probabilities for each cell at a production phase;
• using said population-based analysis of said cells' across-temperature bit-error-rates for said measured nominal one-probabilities for each cell to derive a confidence level for an average across-temperature bit-error-rate of a set of cells;
• and
• optimizing a fuzzy extractor by identifying a subset of more reliable bits out of a population of physical unclonable function bits using said derived confidence level for said average across-temperature bit-error-rate of said set of cells.

A computer program product for reducing the amount of helper data that needs to be stored, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code comprising the programming instructions for:

• extracting distribution of cells' across-temperature bit-error-rates using a population-based analysis at a technology development phase;
• measuring only nominal one-probabilities for each cell at a production phase;
• using said population-based analysis of said cells' across-temperature bit-error-rates for said measured nominal one-probabilities for each cell to derive a confidence level for an average across-temperature bit-error-rate of a set of cells;
• and
• optimizing a fuzzy extractor by identifying a subset of more reliable bits out of a population of physical unclonable function bits using said derived confidence level for said average across-temperature bit-error-rate of said set of cells.

A system, comprising:

• a memory unit for storing a computer program for reducing the amount of helper data that needs to be stored;
• and
• a processor coupled to the memory unit, wherein the processor is configured to execute the program instructions of the computer program comprising:
• extracting distribution of cells' across-temperature bit-error-rates using a population-based analysis at a technology development phase;
• measuring only nominal one-probabilities for each cell at a production phase;
• using said population-based analysis of said cells' across-temperature bit-error-rates for said measured nominal one-probabilities for each cell to derive a confidence level for an average across-temperature bit-error-rate of a set of cells;
• and
• optimizing a fuzzy extractor by identifying a subset of more reliable bits out of a population of physical unclonable function bits using said derived confidence level for said average across-temperature bit-error-rate of said set of cells.

A method for helper data size reduction for strong physical unclonable functions, the method comprising:

• generating pseudo random numbers;
• inputting said generated pseudo random numbers to a strong physical unclonable function which outputs a set of responses to said inputted pseudo random numbers as input challenges that are stored in a one-dimensional indexed array;
• applying compression and confidence interval estimation techniques to form a compact representation of challenge response pairs of said strong physical unclonable function as entries of said array;
• and
• storing said representation as reduced helper data in a memory of a physical unclonable function system.

A computer program product for helper data size reduction for strong physical unclonable functions, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code comprising the programming instructions for:

• generating pseudo random numbers;
• inputting said generated pseudo random numbers to a strong physical unclonable function which outputs a set of responses to said inputted pseudo random numbers as input challenges that are stored in a one-dimensional indexed array;
• applying compression and confidence interval estimation techniques to form a compact representation of challenge response pairs of said strong physical unclonable function as entries of said array;
• and
• storing said representation as reduced helper data in a memory of a physical unclonable function system.

A system, comprising:

• a memory unit for storing a computer program for helper data size reduction for strong physical unclonable functions;
• and
• a processor coupled to the memory unit, wherein the processor is configured to execute the program instructions of the computer program comprising:
• generating pseudo random numbers;
• inputting said generated pseudo random numbers to a strong physical unclonable function which outputs a set of responses to said inputted pseudo random numbers as input challenges that are stored in a one-dimensional indexed array;
• applying compression and confidence interval estimation techniques to form a compact representation of challenge response pairs of said strong physical unclonable function as entries of said array;
• and
• storing said representation as reduced helper data in a memory of a physical unclonable function system.