A review of devices used to provide hardware fingerprints for authentication and identification

What is it about?

Physically unclonable functions (PUFs) are devices that generate unique fingerprints, for authentication and identification, based on their structural makeup. They are advantageous over storing identities and keys in memories as they cannot easily be cloned. The field of PUFs has expanded a lot in the last 20 years or so, and in this review we aim comprehensively cover all different forms of PUFs, their underlying mechanisms and relative benefits of different technologies.

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Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash

Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This is a comprehensive review of physically unclonable functions (PUFs) that consider and compares underlying mechanisms of operation. PUFs are an important emerging category of hardware security device.