The impact of discharge inversion effect on learning SRAM power-up statistics

The authentication and verification of devices require lightweight and cost-effective solutions such as the use of fingerprints of the components contained in the device. The power-up state of Static Random Access Memory (SRAMs) has a significant effect on some security and authentication applications, such as SRAM Physical Unclonable Function (PUFs) and Random Number Generation (RNG). In this paper, a detailed data collection scheme and corresponding statistical and physical analysis are presented. The results of tests on different models of SRAM chips show that the power-up state of SRAM need to be carefully collected in order to avoid increasing the volume of enrollment data. Otherwise, the probability of failure to verify will increase. Furthermore, this method provides a stable and reliable power-up state of SRAM chips and can be used as a guidance for data acquisition and analysis of similar applications. We illustrate the Discharge Inversion Effect (DIE) for SRAM chips from different manufacturers, and demonstrate how it may impact SRAM power-up applications unless our guidelines for proper data collection and use are followed.