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Secure authentication with high-entropy silicon physical unclonable functions

Project description

An authentication solution to prevent product counterfeiting

Physical unclonable functions (PUFs) are silicon integrated circuits that for a given input and under certain conditions serve as unique identifiers. They are often based on unique physical variations that occur naturally during semiconductor manufacturing. These circuits respond to digital input strings (challenges) with digital output strings (responses), where the challenge–response mapping (the unclonable function) is fully repeatable with ageing and with varying environmental conditions. To make them resilient to AI-based and brute-force attacks, it is imperative to design and fabricate high-entropy PUFs. This is exactly the objective of the EU-funded authentIC project. The authenticity of an object to which an authentIC label will be attached could be verified by a standard smartphone.

Objective

The innovation idea of the AuthentIC project is an authentication solution for anticounterfeiting of goods based on proprietary silicon integrated circuits implementing high-entropy physical unclonable functions (PUFs). The demonstration of such solution is the main objective of the project.

PUFs are silicon integrated circuits that leverage random variations due to fabrication tolerances to implement a unique function that is unknown to the observer and the manufacturer, and extremely difficult to measure experimentally. From a behavioural viewpoint, PUFs are circuits that respond to digital input strings (challenges) with digital output strings (responses), where the challenge-response mapping (the unclonable function) is fully repeatable with aging and with varying environmental conditions. To make PUFs resilient to AI-based attacks and to brute force attacks, it is imperative to design and fabricate high-entropy PUFs, as we plan to do in AuthentIC. The PUF chips are then packaged in NFC transponders (AuthentIC labels), either mounted on flexible RFID labels with a printed antenna (e.g. for luxury goods) or embedded in a credit-card sized transponder (e.g. for a wearable access badge).

In the actual use of the AuthentIC solution, the authenticity of an object to which an AuthentIC label is attached can be verified by using a standard smartphone, through the NFC interface. An app on the smartphone will receive a challenge from a TA and forward it to the PUF. It will then receive the response and forward it to the TA for validation. Through the AuthentIC project, we pursue a product innovation consisting in the offering of a complete authentication solution based on high-entropy silicon PUFs.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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CSA - Coordination and support action

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2020

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Coordinator

QUANTAVIS SRL
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 100 000,00
Address
VIA DEI PENSIERI 60
57128 Livorno
Italy

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Centro (IT) Toscana Livorno
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

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