Title: On the Theoretical Analysis of Memristor based True Random

Generator

Abstract:
Emerging nano-devices like memristors display stochastic switching
behavior which poses a big uncertainty in their implementation as the next-
generation CMOS alternative. However, this stochasticity provides an
opportunity to design circuits for hardware security. There are several
examples in literature where the stochastic switching time of memristors are
used as the source of entropy to build true random number generators
(TRNGs). Software-based pseudo-random numbers may not be random
enough for many different applications where true random numbers are a
necessity. In this work, we have analyzed traditional TRNG designs that
utilize memristors' switching time and evaluated them in varying operating
conditions and with process variation in mind. Specifically, we have
mathematically formulated how large process variation and strong
temperature and voltage dependence of memristors can degrade the
performance of these TRNGs. Depending on these analyses, we also have
proposed a new way of designing memristive TRNG based on difference
between stochastic high resistance states of a pair of memristors. Using
simple probabilistic mathematics, we have evaluated our proposed method
with existing ones and shown that our proposed design is robust in
unfavorable environmental conditions and in the presence of large process
variation where traditional TRNG bit quality degrades rapidly.