TY - JOUR U1 - Zeitschriftenartikel, wissenschaftlich - begutachtet (reviewed) A1 - Erozan, Ahmet Turan A1 - Wang, Guan Ying A1 - Bishnoi, Rajendra A1 - Aghassi-Hagmann, Jasmin A1 - Tahoori, Mehdi Baradaran T1 - A Compact Low-Voltage True Random Number Generator based on Inkjet Printing Technology JF - IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems N2 - Printed electronics (PE) is a fast-growing field with promising applications in wearables, smart sensors, and smart cards, since it provides mechanical flexibility, and low-cost, on-demand, and customizable fabrication. To secure the operation of these applications, true random number generators (TRNGs) are required to generate unpredictable bits for cryptographic functions and padding. However, since the additive fabrication process of the PE circuits results in high intrinsic variations due to the random dispersion of the printed inks on the substrate, constructing a printed TRNG is challenging. In this article, we exploit the additive customizable fabrication feature of inkjet printing to design a TRNG based on electrolyte-gated field-effect transistors (EGFETs). We also propose a printed resistor tuning flow for the TRNG circuit to mitigate the overall process variation of the TRNG so that the generated bits are mostly based on the random noise in the circuit, providing a true random behavior. The simulation results show that the overall process variation of the TRNGs is mitigated by 110 times, and the generated bitstream of the tuned TRNGs passes the National Institute of Standards and Technology - Statistical Test Suite. For the proof of concept, the proposed TRNG circuit was fabricated and tuned. The characterization results of the tuned TRNGs prove that the TRNGs generate random bitstreams at the supply voltage of down to 0.5 V. Hence, the proposed TRNG design is suitable to secure low-power applications in this domain. Y1 - 2020 SN - 1063-8210 (Print) SS - 1063-8210 (Print) SN - 1557-9999 (Online) SS - 1557-9999 (Online) U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/TVLSI.2020.2975876 DO - https://doi.org/10.1109/TVLSI.2020.2975876 VL - 28 IS - 6 SP - 1485 EP - 1495 ER -