This invention is a hardware security technology that creates a unique and unclonable fingerprint for each semiconductor chip. It uses natural manufacturing variations in the back-end-of-line (BEOL) layers of a CMOS device to produce a chip-specific optical response when illuminated with light. The resulting optical pattern acts as a secure identifier that can be used for authentication or key generation. Since the randomness comes from standard fabrication variations, no special materials or custom photonic layers are required, making this approach practical and cost-effective for large-scale deployment. Background: Physical Unclonable Functions (PUF) are widely used to provide secure device identity and protect against counterfeiting. Many existing PUF technologies rely on electrical memory states or specially fabricated structures, which can increase cost or introduce new attack surfaces. This novel technology takes advantage of unavoidable randomness already present in advanced chip manufacturing. By using optical behavior tied directly to physical structure, it creates a strong primitive security that is difficult to copy or predict, while remaining compatible with existing CMOS processes. Applications:
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