From Static to Dynamic Security: Multidimensional and Reconfigurable Physical Unclonable Functions

As global interconnectivity continues to intensify across digital and physical infrastructures, the pursuit of sophisticated hardware-level security mechanisms that seamlessly intertwine these domains has become increasingly vital. Physically unclonable functions (PUFs) have emerged as intrinsic identifiers that exploit unavoidable physical variations to ensure authenticity and tamper resistance. Early generations of PUFs-implemented through single-mode architectures such as electrical or optical configurations-demonstrated the foundational potential of device-intrinsic randomness for secure authentication. Electrical PUFs capitalize on stochastic charge transport and interface disorder, while optical PUFs harness complex light-matter interactions to achieve high entropy and physical uniqueness. Building upon these single-domain systems, recent advances have driven the evolution toward multidimensional and reconfigurable PUFs, integrating multiple transduction pathways and tunable material responses. Such hybrid architectures expand the challenge-response landscape, enhance adaptability under varying conditions, and enable programable security characteristics. This review traces the progression from conventional single-domain PUFs to emerging multidimensional systems, highlighting advances in materials, device integration, and adaptive design. Finally, we discuss persisting limitations and outline prospects for developing intelligent, scalable, and resilient PUF platforms for next-generation cyber-physical networks.