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Comparative Analysis of SRAM PUF Temperature Susceptibility on Embedded Systems

Martina Zeinzinger, Josef Langer, Florian Eibensteiner, Phillip Petz, Lucas Drack, Daniel Dorfmeister, Rudolf Ramler

Abstract

An SRAM Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) can distinguish SRAM modules by analyzing the inherent randomness of their start-up behavior. However, the effectiveness of this technique varies depending on the design and fabrication of the SRAM module. This study compares two similar microcontrollers, both equipped with on-chip SRAM, to determine which device produces a better SRAM PUF. Both microcontrollers are programmed with an identical SRAM PUF authentication routine and tested under varying ambient temperatures (ranging from 10 °C to 50 °C) to evaluate the impact of temperature on SRAM PUF performance. One embedded SRAM works significantly better than the other, even though the two models are closely related. The presented results can be used early in the design process to compare arbitrary on-chip SRAM models and see which is best suited for implementing an SRAM PUF.

Comparative Analysis of SRAM PUF Temperature Susceptibility on Embedded Systems

Abstract

An SRAM Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) can distinguish SRAM modules by analyzing the inherent randomness of their start-up behavior. However, the effectiveness of this technique varies depending on the design and fabrication of the SRAM module. This study compares two similar microcontrollers, both equipped with on-chip SRAM, to determine which device produces a better SRAM PUF. Both microcontrollers are programmed with an identical SRAM PUF authentication routine and tested under varying ambient temperatures (ranging from 10 °C to 50 °C) to evaluate the impact of temperature on SRAM PUF performance. One embedded SRAM works significantly better than the other, even though the two models are closely related. The presented results can be used early in the design process to compare arbitrary on-chip SRAM models and see which is best suited for implementing an SRAM PUF.
Paper Structure (20 sections, 8 figures, 2 tables)

This paper contains 20 sections, 8 figures, 2 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Background
  3. Physical Unclonable Functions
  4. SRAM PUFs
  5. Noise and Error Correction
  6. SRAM PUFs in Embedded Memory
  7. Start-Up Behavior
  8. Embedded SRAM Reset Behavior
  9. Sensitivity to Environmental Factors
  10. Experiments
  11. Used Microcontrollers
  12. Experimental Setup
  13. Metrics and Notation
  14. Results and Discussion
  15. Measurement Series and Temperatures
  16. ...and 5 more sections

Figures (8)

  • Figure 1: The start-up pattern of an SRAM chip, averaged over a 100 readings. The shading of each cell represents the cell's probability of powering up to 1. White and black cells have a strong probability of 100 % and 0 %, respectively. Gray cells can be considered unreliable, making them so-called weak cells.
  • Figure 2: Low-cost climate chamber for tests in a temperature-stable environment. The styrofoam chamber can accommodate devices up to the size of ATX mainboards. Heat is transferred from the inner fan and the inner aluminum plate to the outer CPU fan by two Peltier elements on each side. Depending on the waste heat from the electronic devices inside, precise control of the target temperature from 0 °C to 55 °C is possible.
  • Figure 3: The two tested versions of STM Nucleo boards: STM32F446RE on the left side and STM32F401RE on the right side.
  • Figure 4: Temperature for each collected sample as measured by the internal temperature sensor of each board. Each line and color stands for a particular board, resulting in 14 lines in total for each graph. The left graph shows the values for the F401RE, while the right graph shows values for the F446RE. As indicated by the x-axis, 50 samples were taken at each temperature point.
  • Figure 5: $\textsl{HD}_{\textit{intra}}$ of both SRAM types in comparison. Each data point stands for the FHD between the corresponding fingerprint and the reference fingerprint we took at 25 °C. The data points correspond to those in \ref{['fig:temperatures']}. Again, there are 14 lines per measurement series. Averaging all 14 lines gives the values found in \ref{['tab:intraHD25']}. The left graph shows the results for the F401RE, while the right graph shows results for the F446RE.
  • ...and 3 more figures