Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-28-2023

Department

Department of Physics

Abstract

The spectral sensitivity near exceptional points (EPs) has been recently explored as an avenue for building sensors with enhanced sensitivity. However, to date, it is not clear whether this class of sensors does indeed outperform traditional sensors in terms of signal-to-noise ratio. In this work, we investigate the spectral sensitivity associated with EPs under a different lens and propose to utilize it as a resource for hardware security. In particular, we introduce a physically unclonable function (PUF) based on analogue electronic circuits that benefit from the drastic eigenvalues bifurcation near a divergent exceptional point to enhance the stochastic entropy caused by inherent parameter fluctuations in electronic components. This in turn results in a perfect entropy source for the generation of encryption keys encoded in analog electrical signals. This lightweight and robust analog-PUF structure may lead to a variety of unforeseen securities and anti-counterfeiting applications in radio-frequency fingerprinting and wireless communications.

Publisher's Statement

© The Author(s) 2023. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36508-x

Publication Title

Nature Communications

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Version

Publisher's PDF

Included in

Physics Commons

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