Concealable physical unclonable functions using vertical NAND flash memory

Sung-Ho Park, Ryun-Han Koo, Yeongheon Yang, Jiseong Im, Jonghyun Ko and Jong-Ho Lee ()
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Sung-Ho Park: Seoul National University
Ryun-Han Koo: Seoul National University
Yeongheon Yang: SK hynix Inc.
Jiseong Im: Seoul National University
Jonghyun Ko: Seoul National University
Jong-Ho Lee: Seoul National University

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) can address the demand for enhanced hardware security. Vertical NAND (V-NAND) flash memory is the most commercialized non-volatile memory. However, it has been optimized to reduce cell-to-cell variation for stable data storage, which presents challenges for its application as a PUF, as PUFs inherently rely on such variations. Here, we propose a concealable PUF using V-NAND flash memory by generating PUF data through weak Gate-Induced-Drain-Leakage (GIDL) erase. The differences in doping depth among V-NAND strings arising from the fabrication cause variations in GIDL erase performance. The resulting V-NAND PUF demonstrated ideal security characteristics while maintaining 100% accuracy under variations in read count and temperature. Concealment is achieved by overwriting the PUF data with other data, and perfect conceal-reveal characteristics are maintained over 102 cycles. Concealable V-NAND PUF not only prevents attacks when the PUF is not in use but also allows the memory to be utilized as storage.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60415-y

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