International Business Machines Corporation
PHYSICAL UNCLONABLE FUNCTION

Abstract:

Methods, and devices related to authentication of chips using physical unclonable function (PUF) are disclosed. The semiconductor chip has a substrate having a major surface. The semiconductor chip has a boundary defined on the major surface in accordance with a ground rule associated with a gate cut passing (CT) fin formed on the major surface. The semiconductor chip has multiple non-planar devices fabricated on the surface at the boundary. The CT fin forms a random distribution of field effect transistors (FETs) with varying work function metal (WFM) thickness that includes some FETs that fail the ground rule and other FETs that meet the ground rule. A physical unclonable function (PUF) region is defined in accordance with the random distribution.