Abstract
With the popularization of the Internet, data transmission has become more convenient and highly mobile. In order to prevent data theft, data encryption system is essential to modern communication chips. A stable and True Random Number Generator (TRNG) is a key element to ensure the security of transmitted data. TRNG based on the trapping and de-trapping process in the oxide defects has been proposed in recent years. Generating random numbers using electron trapping has several advantages. First, as the source of this random process occurs naturally, hence the resulting random number is aperiodic. In addition, the output is generally insensitive to temperature. Random number generator circuits depend on random latching of inverter pair can subject to mismatch effects. In a MOSFET, random telegraph noise (RTN) refers to the drain current fluctuation (ID-RTN) as a result of the change in the amount of carriers flowing from source to drain. These RTN signals with discrete drain current levels is generally very small and can lead to misleading results after amplifications. In this paper, we proposed a TRNG based on the RTN signals found in the contact resistive random access memory (CRRAM) device. As reported in previous studies, the resistance levels of both the high and low resistance states are subject to high RTN, leading to large read current noises as a results of electron trapping in the conductive pathway. These RTN signals from the embedded CRRAM cells is much larger than ID-RTN, which allows CRRAM to be more appropriate source for generating true random number for encryption circuitry.