System and method for physical one-way function authentication via chaotic integrated photonic resonators

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10860746-B2
Application number	US-201716091276-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 7, 2017
Priority date	Apr 7, 2016
Publication date	Dec 8, 2020
Grant date	Dec 8, 2020

Abstract

A system and method is provided for a cryptographic primitive and authentication protocol comprised of micro-cavity resonators at optical wavelengths. A micro-cavity resonator is illuminated with an optical challenge signal and the cavity returns an output response that is dependent on the input signal. Digital signal processing is performed on the output signal to generate a corresponding digital representation. This process is repeated for variations of the input signal with its digital output being stored in a database. A user or object claiming an identity presents a token to the system. The system selects a subset of the available challenge-response pairs and presents the challenges to the token. The system compares the digitized responses with the original responses expected for that token. The system will approve or deny the claimed identity corresponding to the presented token.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for a cryptographic primitive which is deployable in a cryptographic system comprising:
an authentication token wherein the authentication token physically defines a resonator cavity;
an authentication terminal wherein the authentication terminal submits challenge pulses to the authentication token and records a response to each of the challenge pulses, and wherein the authentication terminal verifies the response with an expected response; and,
wherein the system leverages the chaotic behavior of integrated photonic cavities to create a repeatable output, is constructed on a silicon wafer, is of shape and form that creates nonlinear behavior with optical input, has one or more over-coupled or evanescently coupled bus waveguides for transmission and emission and responds to high-power illumination in a way that leverages the nonlinear behavior within the resonator cavity of the device which contribute to the output.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the challenge pulses can be compressed and spectrally phase encoded and high power to operate within the nonlinear behavior of the resonator cavity.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the authentication terminal is comprised of a highly non-linear fiber.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein a polarization state may be used as a factor in developing challenge response pairs.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein a latency of an optical response is used in the verification process.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the response to a challenge to the resonator cavity are amplified and looped back into the input of the resonator cavity zero or more times.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein an A/D detection process interpolates sampled responses with a cubic filter and uses a peak finding algorithm to identify response locations, uses an optimization algorithm to determine an ideal integration window about the peak point to maximize SNR calculates integrated power measurements based upon the ideal integration window calculates the Probability Density Function (PDF) of sampled integrated powers and requantized points into non-uniform levels which flatten a resultant PDF selects k Least Significant Bits (LSBs) from each sample appends resultant bits into a single bit stream.

8. The system of claim 1 further comprising a reverberant silicon photonic cavity.

9. The system of claim 1 further comprising a spectral filter.

10. A method for a cryptographic primitive which is deployable in a cryptographic system comprising:
submitting challenge pulses to an authentication token wherein the authentication token physically defines a resonator cavity and wherein the challenge pulses are submitted using an authentication terminal;
recording a response to the challenge pulses;
verifying the response to the challenge pulses by comparing the response to an expected response; and
using an A/D detection process interpolating sampled responses with a cubic filter and uses a peak finding algorithm to identify response locations, using an optimization algorithm to determine an ideal integration window about a peak point to maximize SNR calculates integrated power measurements based upon the ideal integration window calculates a Probability Density Function (PDF) of the sampled integrated powers and requantized points into non-uniform levels which flatten a resultant PDF selects k Least Significant Bits (LSBs) from each sample appends the resultant bits into a single bit stream.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising leveraging chaotic behavior of integrated photonic cavities to create a repeatable output.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising responding to high-power illumination in a way that leverages nonlinear effects within a device which contribute to the output.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising compressing the challenge pulses, wherein the challenge pulses are spectrally phase and/or amplitude encoded and high power to operate within nonlinear behavior of the resonator cavity wherein the system leverages the chaotic behavior of integrated photonic cavities to create a repeatable output, is constructed on a silicon wafer, is of shape and form that creates the nonlinear behavior with optical input.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising using a highly non-linear fiber.

15. The method of claim 10 , further comprising using a polarization state as a factor in developing challenge response pairs.

16. The method of claim 10 , further comprising using an optical response in the verification process.

17. The method of claim 10 further comprising amplifying and looping back the response to a challenge to the resonator cavity into an input of the resonator cavity zero or more times.

18. The method of claim 10 further comprising using a spectral filter.

19. A system for a cryptographic primitive which is deployable in a cryptographic system comprising:
an authentication token wherein the authentication token physically defines a resonator cavity;
an authentication terminal wherein the authentication terminal submits challenge pulses to the authentication token and records a response to each of the challenge pulses, and
wherein the authentication terminal verifies the response with an expected response; and
wherein an A/D detection process interpolates sampled responses with a cubic filter and uses a peak finding algorithm to identify response locations, uses an optimization algorithm to determine an ideal integration window about the peak point to maximize SNR calculates integrated power measurements based upon the ideal integration window calculates the Probability Density Function (PDF) of sampled integrated powers and re-quantized points into non-uniform levels which flatten a resultant PDF selects k Least Significant Bits (LSBs) from each sample appends resultant bits into a single bit stream.

Assignees

• Univ Johns Hopkins

Inventors

• Foster Amy C
• Cooper Iii A Brinton
• Foster Mark
• Grubel Brian C

Classifications

• H04L9/001

  using chaotic signals · CPC title

• G09C1/00

  Apparatus or methods whereby a given sequence of signs, e.g. an intelligible text, is transformed into an unintelligible sequence of signs by transposing the signs or groups of signs or by replacing them by others according to a predetermined system (cryptographic typewriters G09C3/00) · CPC title

• G06F21/44

  Program or device authentication · CPC title

• H04L9/3278

  using physically unclonable functions [PUF] · CPC title

• G06F21/72 Primary

  in cryptographic circuits · CPC title