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IEEE Photonics Conference

Time Domain Physical Unclonable Functions in Silicon Nitride Ring Resonator Networks

Himadri Sahoo, D. J. de Ruiter, Lars van der Hoeven, Daan Stellinga, Matthias C. Velsink, Pepijn W. H. Pinkse

Published Nov 9, 2025• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Time-domain physical unclonable functions (tPUFs) implemented in silicon nitride ring resonator networks exploit unavoidable manufacturing variations leading to spectro-temporal scrambling for fiber-based single-mode readout. We validate unclonability through correlation metrics across mirrored networks, demonstrate stability against thermal drift, and realize an analog tPEAC protocol and observed a peak pulse at one output channel. These results establish tPUFs as compact, robust photonic tokens for secure, remote authentication.

DOI
10.1109/ipc65510.2025.11282367

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Time-domain physical unclonable functions (tPUFs) implemented in silicon nitride ring resonator networks exploit unavoidable manufacturing variations leading to spectro-temporal scrambling for fiber-based single-mode readout. We validate unclonability through correlation metrics across mirrored networks, demonstrate stability against thermal drift, and realize an analog tPEAC protocol and observed a peak pulse at one output channel. These results establish tPUFs as compact, robust photonic tokens for secure, remote authentication.
We introduce time-domain physical unclonable functions (tPUFs) using photonic ring resonator networks, fabricated on a silicon nitride platform. These tPUFs demonstrate complex spectro-temporal behavior, enabling their use in secure, remote authentication schemes. Physical unclonable functions (PUFs) offer an alternative to conventional hash functions by leveraging the intrinsic randomness of physical structures [1], [2]. Optical PUFs have historically been realized using strongly scattering media [3], [4]. We introduce time-domain PUFs (tPUFs) that employ temporal scrambling, allowing for read-out over a single spatial mode. This allows integration into existing infrastructure, such as telecom fibers and satellite links.
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Abstract We demonstrate the uniqueness, unclonability and secure authentication of N = 56 physical unclonable functions (PUFs) realized from silicon photonic moiré quasicrystal interferometers. Compared to prior photonic-PUF demonstrations typically limited in scale to only a handful of unique devices and on the order of 10 false authentication attempts, this work examines > 103 inter-device comparisons and false authentication attempts. Device fabrication is divided across two separate fabrication facilities, allowing for cross-fab analysis and emulation of a malicious foundry with exact knowledge of the PUF photonic circuit design and process. Our analysis also compares cross-correlation based authentication to the traditional Hamming distance method and experimentally demonstrates an authentication error rate AER = 0%, false authentication rate FAR = 0%, and an estimated probability of cloning below 10−30. This work validates the potential scalability of integrated photonic-PUFs which can attractively leverage mature wafer-scale manufacturing and automated contact-free optical probing. Such structures show promise for authenticating hardware in the untrusted supply chain or augmenting conventional electronic-PUFs to enhance system security.