Secure authentication with high-entropy silicon physical unclonable functions

Project Information

authentIC

Grant agreement ID: 101034814

DOI

10.3030/101034814

Project closed

EC signature date 16 March 2021

Start date 1 July 2021

End date 30 June 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 100 000,00

Coordinated by

QUANTAVIS SRL
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - authentIC (Secure authentication with high-entropy silicon physical unclonable functions)

Reporting period: 2021-07-01 to 2023-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

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. The practical adoption of present-day PUFs has been limited because they are vulnerable to attacks based on artificial intelligence (AI). 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 do in AuthentIC.
We have designed, fabricated and successfully tested two generations of high-entropy PUF in silicon CMOS, with entropy higher than 1 Mbit. We have used two different standard CMOS process: a 180 nm process from UMC and a 65 nm process from TSMC. In the latter case the die area is a fraction of 1 squared mm.

Authentic want to find a viable commercial solution to contrast counterfeiting, that reached in 2017 the global amount of 1.2 Trillion USD in 2017 considering counterfeiting of all equipment/products from defence equipment to counterfeiting of watches.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In the initial phase of the project, the concept of high-entropy PUF has been defined and implemented as a mixed-signal CMOS circuit, that has been designed and fabricated in a commercial 180 nm CMOS technology. The PUF chip has been then fabricated and validated with a custom-made test board and a series of experimental tests. In the second phase of the project, a second generation PUF has been designed and fabricated with an improved architecture and a more advanced CMOS technology (65 nm), reaching a record high 1 Mbit entropy PUF in less than one square millimeter. At the same time an innovative authentication procedure has been defined based on federated trusted authorities to improve the robustness and the resiliency of the authentication infrastructure.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

There are two main elements of progress beyond the state of the art.
• First our PUF has 1Mbit of entropy, two orders of magnitude larger than commercial PUFs and PUFs presented in the scientific literature.
• Second, the innovative authentication procedure based on federated trusted authorities is robust and resilient.

With AuthentIC, Quantavis targets a huge potential market with the aim of conquering a niche sufficient to sustain a dedicated business line. Indeed, the amount of total counterfeiting globally reached to 1.2 Trillion USD in 2017 and is bound to reach 1.82 Trillion USD by this year, which includes counterfeiting of all equipment/products from defence equipment to counterfeiting of watches [GBCR2018]. According to a study led by the European Union’s Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), counterfeit bags, clothing, smartphones, and fraudulent drugs cost the European economy a loss of €60 billion each year.

AuthentIC innovation vision