Atmospheric pressure air microplasma current time series for true random bit generation

Abstract

Generating true random bits of high quality at high data rates is usually viewed as a challenging task. To do so, physical sources of entropy with wide bandwidth are required which are able to provide truly random bits and not pseudorandom bits, as it is the case with deterministic algorithms and chaotic systems. In this work we demonstrate a reliable high-speed true random bit generator (TRBG) device based on the unpredictable electrical current time series of atmospheric pressure air microplasma (APAMP). After binarization of the sampled current time series, no further post-processing was needed in order for the bitstreams to pass all 15 tests of the NIST SP 800-22 statistical test suite. Several configurations of the system have been successfully tested at different sampling rates up to 100 MS/s, and with different inter-electrode distances giving visible/non-visible optical emissions. The cost-effectiveness, simplicity and ease of implementation of the proposed APAMP system compared to others makes it a very promising solution for portable TRBGs.

Parallel and independent true random bitstreams from optical emission spectra of atmospheric microplasma arc discharge

“…The schematic of the parallel random bitstreams generation system using APAMP is shown in Figure 1. The dc control voltage powering the APAMP circuit [ 14,15 ] was set to 20 V and the dc current was limited to 4 A. The interelectrode distance is about 0.8 cm and the ambient air temperature is .…”

“…This resulted in two independent (uncorrelated) random bitstreams that were shown to pass successfully all tests in the National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-22 (NIST SP 800-22) battery for RBG applications without the need of any data post-processing tools; albeit at the cost of using two types of measuring devices and interfacing circuits. In both cases, the microplasma system, whether generated and sustained between two electrodes in atmospheric air or between an electrode and an electrolyte, constitutes a complex structure with unpredictable outcomes of physical (electrical or optical at least) measurements, [16][17][18][19][20][21] which is different from pseudo-RBGs based on deterministic computer algorithms.…”

“…In recent contributions, [ 14,15 ] some of the coauthors investigated the usage of current intensity time series generated from an atmospheric pressure air microplasma (APAMP) system for RBG applications. In these systems, we examined only one data bitstream originating from the electrical current time series acquired using a high bandwidth, high‐resolution current probe.…”

“…Schematic of the parallel random bitstreams generation using an atmospheric pressure air microplasma (APAMP) process. The APAMP circuit [ 14,15 ] is powered by a DC power supply and generates the plasma arc between the two electrodes via a power transformer producing tens of kV. The plasma emission spectra were then measured by an optical spectrometer with a built‐in 16‐bit analog‐to‐digital‐converter (ADC).…”

“…The statistical distribution of the fluctuations can be fitted well enough by a normal distribution (Figure S1), indicating the noise-like behavior of the time evolution of these F I G U R E 1 Schematic of the parallel random bitstreams generation using an atmospheric pressure air microplasma (APAMP) process. The APAMP circuit [14,15] is powered by a DC power supply and generates the plasma arc between the two electrodes via a power transformer producing tens of kV. The plasma emission spectra were then measured by an optical spectrometer with a built-in 16-bit analog-to-digital-converter (ADC).…”