Investigation of unique broadband nonlinear RF response of electronic devices

Modern electronic devices with the same part number fabricated by the same company show different nonlinear responses when probed by broadband radio frequency (RF) signals. The difference in the response is primarily due to process variation during device fabrication. In this paper, the individual variation of device intermodulation response is studied. Experiments are performed to demonstrate that devices with the same design and layout can be differentiated based on their broadband intermodulation responses. This makes it possible to use RF technology to remotely identify and authenticate electronic devices.