A study of using STT-MRAM as Memory PUF: Design, Modeling and Quality Evaluation

The contribution of the present thesis work is to offer an extensive analysis and new methodologies and guidelines on the use of Magnetic Memory (MRAM), in its most advanced, recent and performing flavor (STT-MRAM) as a tool to realize a unique and unclonable binary signature out of a magnetic memory chip, eventually implanted as a part of a more complex digital system device, providing then a low-cost and robust tool to generate a signature out of each of the devices of a given manufactured production lot. The need of generating a signature comes from the new dictations of Hardware Security field, a set of practices and rules devised to fight intellectual property theft and electronic chips piracy. The technique used to apply these principles to magnetic memory is called Physically Unclonable Function, or PUF for short.