Efficient Error Correction Coding for Physically Unclonable Functions

Physically unclonable functions (PUFs) generate keys for cryptographic applications, eliminating the need for conventional key storage mechanisms. Since PUF responses are inherently noise-sensitive, their reliability can decrease under varying conditions. Integrating channel coding can enhance response stability and consistency. This work presents an efficient scheme that integrates a delay-base d PUF with a Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) code. Specifically, a feed-forward PUF is combined with LDPC coding to reliably regenerate the cryptographic key. Our design reproduces the key with minimal error using channel coding. The scheme achieves 96% key-generation reliability, representing a notable improvement over PUF-based key generation without error-correction coding. LDPC decoding with the min-sum algorithm provides better error correction than the bit-flipping algorithm, but it is more computationally intensive. We could design the proposed scheme with minimum hardware resource utilization using Xilinx Vivado 2018.2 and Cadence Genus tools.