Just as human fingerprints change depending on conditions, such as being wet, dry, or oily, the Coulomb diamond images can also look slightly different when measured under different conditions. As the number of trap sites increases, the diamond patterns because more complex. The Coulomb diamonds are so-named because the regions of a current-voltage diagram in which current is suppressed by single-electron effects sometimes have the shape of a diamond. In their work, the physicists applied image-matching algorithms in order to identify different current-voltage features called Coulomb diamonds. In addition, PUFs retain their key features throughout the lifetime of the device, despite some degradation due to aging effects. Like a human fingerprint, PUFs are based on unique, naturally occurring physical variations and cannot be transferred to other devices. The importance of security is increasing day by day.'Īs the physicists explain, the fingerprint of an electronic device can be thought of as a physically unclonable function (PUF). 'Our research opens a different way of using the single-electron effect: as a security device. 'So far, no widespread application exists for single-electron devices,' Tanamoto told. Ono at RIKEN in Saitama, Japan, have demonstrated that single-electron effects may be detected by image-recognition algorithms and used for computer chip identification and security.

Nishi at the Toshiba Corporation in Kawasaki, Japan, and K. In a new paper published in Applied Physics Letters, physicists T. Recently, researchers have been investigating how these quantum fingerprints might one day be used as an inexpensive form of ID to protect users' personal information for technologies in the emerging network of internet-connected devices known as the Internet of Things.

As a result, single-electron effects lead to a unique modification in the current-voltage characteristics, effectively giving each transistor a unique 'fingerprint.' As trap sites are basically tiny defects that are randomly distributed in an uncontrollable way during fabrication, the number, location, and energy levels of trap sites differ for every transistor.

Unique fingerprint