Anticounterfeiting solution based on integrated circuits implementing high-entropy physical unclonable functions

Introduction

The EntropIC project aims to advance the technology and market maturity of a comprehensive anti-counterfeiting and identity management solution based on proprietary silicon integrated circuits implementing high-entropy physical unclonable functions.

Overview of Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs)

Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) are silicon integrated circuits that leverage random variations in the fabrication process to implement a unique function that is unknown to the observer and the manufacturer, and extremely difficult to determine experimentally.

From a behavioral viewpoint, PUFs are circuits that respond to digital input strings (challenges) with perfectly repeatable digital output strings (responses). The challenge-response mapping (the unclonable function) is fully repeatable with aging and with varying environmental conditions.

As of now, the practical adoption of PUFs has been restricted by their limited entropy, which makes them vulnerable to cyber attacks, including:

• Brute-force attacks
• AI-based attacks

Innovation in High-Entropy PUFs

EntropIC proposes innovative high-entropy silicon PUFs, with world-record resilience to brute force, AI-based, and side-channel attacks.

The breakthrough EntropIC PUF is a “strong” PUF with at least 2 Mbit of entropy, thanks to mixed analog/digital chip design. In contrast, PUFs available in the market now are of the “weak” type and have a maximum entropy of 4 Kbit.

New Applications and Business Model

The novelty of the high-entropy PUFs proposed in EntropIC enables us to explore new applications and a different business model.

Instead of selling chips or licensing IP, we target a business model that provides a fully managed solution to an industrial customer. This solution is aimed at:

1. Defending its brand from counterfeiting
2. Deploying and managing secure Internet of Things (IoT) devices