RFID-Based Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) Enabled by Laser-Induced Graphene (LIG)

The growing adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) has intensified the demand for secure and scalable solutions against counterfeiting and duplication. Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) represent a promising security primitive, leveraging intrinsic manufacturing variability for tamper-resistant authentication. This work investigates the use of Laser-Induced Graphene (LIG) as a material platform to realize PUFs integrated into the electromagnetic response of passive RFID tags. A set of ten LIG-based dipole antennas was fabricated and characterized through backscatter measurements. The extracted fingerprints were digitized and evaluated using standard PUF metrics. The analysis revealed approximately 88 degrees of freedom, indicating a significant level of entropy and inter-device distinctiveness. The proposed approach requires no additional cryptographic hardware and remains fully compatible with standard RFID protocols. These findings support the feasibility of a hardwareefficient, scalable, and environmentally sustainable solution for secure identification in IoT and supply chain applications.