ChipDNA™ Embedded Security PUF Authenticators

Analog Devices' ChipDNA technology, based on a physically unclonable function (PUF), provides an exponential increase in protection against invasive and reverse engineering attacks. In ChipDNA authenticators, the PUF circuit relies on the naturally occurring random analog characteristics of fundamental MOSFET devices to produce cryptographic keys, making it immune to all known invasive attack tools and capabilities. In addition to the protection benefits, ChipDNA simplifies or eliminates the need for secure IC key management.

Each IC’s unique ChipDNA-generated key is repeatable over temperature, voltage, and IC operating life conditions since it is based on physically unclonable functionality. Attempts to probe or observe ChipDNA operation modifies the underlying circuit characteristics preventing the discovery of the unique value used by the chip cryptographic functions. Similarly, more exhaustive reverse-engineering attempts are defeated due to the factory conditioning required to make the ChipDNA circuitry operational. The per-device unique key is generated by the ChipDNA circuitry only when needed for cryptographic operations and is then instantaneously deleted.

The ChipDNA secure key never resides statically in registers or memory, nor does it ever leave the electrical boundary of the IC. ChipDNA simplifies or eliminates the need for secure IC key management. The ChipDNA-generated key can be used directly for functions such as:

• Root key for derived key operations
• Private key for ECDSA signature generation
• Private key for ECDH key establishment
• Symmetric secret to encrypt/decrypt data stored in the nonvolatile memory of the secure IC