Jiang Hao, Belkin Daniel, Savel'ev Sergey E, Lin Siyan, Wang Zhongrui, Li Yunning, Joshi Saumil, Midya Rivu, Li Can, Rao Mingyi, Barnell Mark, Wu Qing, Yang J Joshua, Xia Qiangfei
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA.
Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA, 19081, USA.
Nat Commun. 2017 Oct 12;8(1):882. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00869-x.
The intrinsic variability of switching behavior in memristors has been a major obstacle to their adoption as the next generation of universal memory. On the other hand, this natural stochasticity can be valuable for hardware security applications. Here we propose and demonstrate a novel true random number generator utilizing the stochastic delay time of threshold switching in a Ag:SiO diffusive memristor, which exhibits evident advantages in scalability, circuit complexity, and power consumption. The random bits generated by the diffusive memristor true random number generator pass all 15 NIST randomness tests without any post-processing, a first for memristive-switching true random number generators. Based on nanoparticle dynamic simulation and analytical estimates, we attribute the stochasticity in delay time to the probabilistic process by which Ag particles detach from a Ag reservoir. This work paves the way for memristors in hardware security applications for the era of the Internet of Things.Memristors can switch between high and low electrical-resistance states, but the switching behaviour can be unpredictable. Here, the authors harness this unpredictability to develop a memristor-based true random number generator that uses the stochastic delay time of threshold switching.
忆阻器开关行为的内在变异性一直是其作为下一代通用存储器被采用的主要障碍。另一方面，这种自然的随机性对于硬件安全应用可能是有价值的。在此，我们提出并演示了一种利用Ag:SiO扩散忆阻器中阈值开关的随机延迟时间的新型真随机数发生器，它在可扩展性、电路复杂性和功耗方面展现出明显优势。由扩散忆阻器真随机数发生器生成的随机比特无需任何后处理即可通过所有15项美国国家标准与技术研究院（NIST）随机性测试，这对于忆阻开关真随机数发生器来说尚属首次。基于纳米颗粒动态模拟和分析估计，我们将延迟时间的随机性归因于Ag颗粒从Ag储库脱离的概率过程。这项工作为忆阻器在物联网时代的硬件安全应用铺平了道路。忆阻器可以在高电阻状态和低电阻状态之间切换，但其开关行为可能是不可预测的。在此，作者利用这种不可预测性开发了一种基于忆阻器的真随机数发生器，该发生器利用阈值开关的随机延迟时间。
