Phys.org July 26, 2019
In nanoelectronics the single-electron effect caused by traps are randomly distributed and not controllable therefore, different current–voltage characteristics are observed through traps even in silicon transistors having the same device parameters. Researchers in Japan analyzed the single-electron effect of traps in conventional silicon transistors. At sufficiently low temperatures at which single-electron effects can be observed (in this case, 1.54 K), they showed that current–voltage characteristics can be used as fingerprints of chips through image recognition algorithms. These results show that single-electron effects can provide a quantum version of a physically unclonable function (PUF). They retain their key features throughout the lifetime of the device, despite some degradation due to aging effects and cannot be transferred to other devices…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Single-electron effects in transistors can lead to unique electric properties that could be used for security purposes. Credit: Pixabay