Improved Performance of SRAM-Based True Random Number Generator by Leveraging Irradiation Exposure

Abstract

Encryption is an important step for secure data transmission, and a true random number generator (TRNG) is a key building block in many encryption algorithms. Static random-access memory (SRAM) chips can be easily available sources of true random numbers, benefiting from noisy SRAM cells whose start-up values flip between different power-on cycles. Embarking from this phenomenon, a novel performance (i.e., randomness and throughput) improvement method of SRAM-based TRNG is proposed, and its implementation can be divided into two phases: irradiation exposure and hardware postprocessing. As the randomness of original SRAM power-on values is fairly low, ionization irradiation is utilized to enhance its randomness, and the min-entropy can increase from about 0.03 to above 0.7 in the total ionizing irradiation (TID) experiments. Additionally, while the data remanence effect hampers obtaining random bitstreams with high speed, the ionization irradiation can also weaken this impact and improve the throughput of TRNG. In the hardware postprocessing stage, Secure Hash Algorithm 256 (SHA-256) is implemented on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) with clock frequency of 200 MHz. It can generate National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) SP 800-22 compatible true random bitstreams with throughput of 178 Mbps utilizing SRAM chip with 1 Mbit memory capacity. Furthermore, according to different application scenarios, the throughput can be widely scalable by adjusting clock frequency and SRAM memory capacity, which makes the novel TRNG design applicable for various Internet of Things (IOT) devices.

Multi-stage low-carbon planning of an integrated energy system considering demand response

“…Yuan et al (2023) studied the optimization and scheduling method of integrated energy at the park level under the carbon green certificate trading mechanism. Zhang et al (2020) introduced a reward and punishment tiered carbon trading mechanism to address the collaborative planning problem of integrated energy systems, taking into account the uncertainty of electric heating flexible loads, and proposed an integrated energy system planning model. Luo et al (2021) constructed an integrated energy optimization scheduling model for the carbon green certificate joint trading mechanism, which can effectively improve the consumption rate of renewable energy.…”

TRNGs from Pre-Formed ReRAM Arrays

“…TRNGs can be designed based on memory devices such as SRAMs [15][16][17], DRAMs [18], Flash RAMs [19], Ferro RAMs [20], STT MRAM [21,22], resistive RAMs and Memristors [23,24]. The opportunity is to leverage the potentially large and stochastic cellto-cell variations, considering that memory arrays contain extremely high numbers of addressable cells that can behave independently.…”