Cryptographic Key Generation Based on RF Graphene Quantum Capacitor Trimmers

Here, we present lightweight, passive, and reconfigurable graphene-based physical unclonable function (PUF) tags used for wireless identification and authentication. The anti-counterfeiting label combines a coil antenna with a graphene quantum capacitor to build an LC oscillator. The variations in the manufacturing processes of graphene give rise to a unique RF response to the reader, which can be enhanced by the existence of a standard PT-symmetric circuit. These RF responses are digitalized into binary encrypted keys. Our simulations illustrate that the proposed graphene-based PUFs can exhibit excellent performance in terms of randomness, uniqueness, and reconfigurability by tuning the gate voltage generated in graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs). Our work can further be applied in security schemes for radio-frequency identification (RFID), near-field communications (NFC), and internet-of-things (IoTs).