{"title":"Interface roughness in Resonant Tunnelling Diodes for physically unclonable functions","authors":"Pranav Acharya, Vihar Georgiev","doi":"10.1016/j.sse.2025.109131","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Resonant Tunnelling Diodes with Interface Roughness (IR) were investigated for their potential as components of Physically Uncloneable Functions (PUFs). A comparison of an RTD with IR, against a ‘smooth’ device without IR, showed a reduction in current and Peak to Valley Current Ratio (PVCR) between the resonant peak and valley currents <span><math><mrow><msub><mrow><mi>I</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>r</mi></mrow></msub><mo>/</mo><msub><mrow><mi>I</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>v</mi></mrow></msub></mrow></math></span>. Furthermore, IR resulted in a perturbation of the Negative Differential Region (NDR) of the IV characteristic to higher bias. This perturbation was due to IR effectively thickening barriers and thereby narrowing the Quantum Well (QW) and leading to a higher ground state QW energy. Variation of correlation length <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>L</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>C</mi></mrow></msub></math></span> and roughness asperity <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>Δ</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>R</mi><mi>M</mi><mi>S</mi></mrow></msub></math></span> for batches of 25 randomly generated RTDs with IR showed that increasing <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>Δ</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>R</mi><mi>M</mi><mi>S</mi></mrow></msub></math></span> decreased mean PVCR and increased the standard deviation of the resonant peak voltage <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>V</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>r</mi></mrow></msub></math></span> and current <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>I</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>r</mi></mrow></msub></math></span>. 150 RTDs with an <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>L</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>C</mi></mrow></msub></math></span> of 7.5 nm and <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>Δ</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>R</mi><mi>M</mi><mi>S</mi></mrow></msub></math></span> of 0.3 nm resulted in a min-entropy of 1.275 bits, showing that 100 RTDs could idealistically compose a PUF encoding 127 bits.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21909,"journal":{"name":"Solid-state Electronics","volume":"228 ","pages":"Article 109131"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Solid-state Electronics","FirstCategoryId":"101","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038110125000760","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Resonant Tunnelling Diodes with Interface Roughness (IR) were investigated for their potential as components of Physically Uncloneable Functions (PUFs). A comparison of an RTD with IR, against a ‘smooth’ device without IR, showed a reduction in current and Peak to Valley Current Ratio (PVCR) between the resonant peak and valley currents . Furthermore, IR resulted in a perturbation of the Negative Differential Region (NDR) of the IV characteristic to higher bias. This perturbation was due to IR effectively thickening barriers and thereby narrowing the Quantum Well (QW) and leading to a higher ground state QW energy. Variation of correlation length and roughness asperity for batches of 25 randomly generated RTDs with IR showed that increasing decreased mean PVCR and increased the standard deviation of the resonant peak voltage and current . 150 RTDs with an of 7.5 nm and of 0.3 nm resulted in a min-entropy of 1.275 bits, showing that 100 RTDs could idealistically compose a PUF encoding 127 bits.
期刊介绍:
It is the aim of this journal to bring together in one publication outstanding papers reporting new and original work in the following areas: (1) applications of solid-state physics and technology to electronics and optoelectronics, including theory and device design; (2) optical, electrical, morphological characterization techniques and parameter extraction of devices; (3) fabrication of semiconductor devices, and also device-related materials growth, measurement and evaluation; (4) the physics and modeling of submicron and nanoscale microelectronic and optoelectronic devices, including processing, measurement, and performance evaluation; (5) applications of numerical methods to the modeling and simulation of solid-state devices and processes; and (6) nanoscale electronic and optoelectronic devices, photovoltaics, sensors, and MEMS based on semiconductor and alternative electronic materials; (7) synthesis and electrooptical properties of materials for novel devices.