QT-PUF: Quantum Tunneling Leakage Based PUF for Implantable IoMT Devices

Abstract

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) marks a shift toward decentralized healthcare, enabling continuous monitoring and personalized care through connected wearable and implantable devices. However, ensuring the trust and integrity of these devices themselves remains a major challenge, as physical compromise or counterfeiting can directly endanger patient safety, privacy, and data integrity. This work presents QT-PUF, a gate-tunneling-leakage-based physical unclonable function (PUF) that leverages quantum-mechanical gate leakage resulting from process-induced variations in standard CMOS devices. A differential readout circuit with a pseudo-resistor I-to-V frontend is proposed to convert the picoampere-level leakage variations into digital responses. Unlike existing PUFs such as those based on memory, ring oscillators, or arbiters, which are less suitable for ultralow-power IoMT devices (due to additional circuitry, power overhead, or poor stability), QT-PUF requires no external excitation or stabilization and operates under static bias. Simulation-based measurements for a $\mathbf{65}$~nm CMOS process demonstrate an entropy of $\mathbf{0.9999998}$, an FHD of $\mathbf{0.5001}$, and an average power (energy) consumption of $\mathbf{96.04}$~nW/bit ($\mathbf{19.21}$~fJ/bit, respectively) at $\mathbf{1.2\,V}$ and $\mathbf{35\,^{\circ}C}$ for the proposed PUF. It operates reliably across $\mathbf{0.9}\text{--}\mathbf{1.3}$~V and $\mathbf{0}\text{--}\mathbf{100\,^{\circ}C}$ with an average BER below $\mathbf{0.000163}$ across $\mathbf{1.0}\text{--}\mathbf{1.3}$~V and $\mathbf{10}\text{--}\mathbf{70\,^{\circ}C}$ within the operating conditions of typical implantable devices.