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Topic · Hardware and Architecture

Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security

Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security is a research topic within Hardware and Architecture. Science Explorer counts 12k research works in it since 1958. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on hardware security and authentication techniques, including the use of Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) for device authentication and key generation, detection and prevention of Hardware Trojans, logic encryption methods, FPGA security, anti-counterfeiting measures, IC reverse engineering, scan-based side-channel attacks, machine learning attacks on hardware, and obfuscation techniques to protect integrated circuits.

  • Physical Unclonable Functions
  • Hardware Trojans
  • Logic Encryption
  • FPGA Security
  • Anti-Counterfeiting
  • PUF-Based Authentication
  • IC Reverse Engineering
  • Scan-Based Side-Channel Attacks
  • Machine Learning Attacks
  • Obfuscation Techniques
Research works
12k
fractional, since 1958
In the world top 10%
1.2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+38%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
28% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security

Which countries lead Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (990 and 988 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 990 works
  2. 2 United States 988 works
  3. 3 India 584 works
  4. 4 Germany 258 works
  5. 5 Japan 150 works
  6. 6 France 139 works
  7. 7 South Korea 134 works
  8. 8 Italy 116 works
  9. 9 United Kingdom 110 works
  10. 10 Taiwan 67 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 28.0%United States: 27.9%India: 16.5%Germany: 7.3%6 others listed: 20.2%28%largest
China990 · 28.0%United States988 · 27.9%India584 · 16.5%Germany258 · 7.3%6 others listed716 · 20.2%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Florida publishes the most Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security research, followed by Chinese Academy of Sciences and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of FloridaUnited States 113 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 60 works
  3. 3 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 46 works
  4. 4 Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 34 works
  5. 5 Indian Institute of Technology IndoreIndia 30 works
  6. 6 Amrita Vishwa VidyapeethamIndia 29 works
  7. 7 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 28 works
  8. 8 Beihang UniversityChina 24 works
  9. 9 National University of Defense TechnologyChina 22 works
  10. 10 KU LeuvenBelgium 22 works

Who are the leading researchers in Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security include Wei Huang, Kai You Wang and Lei Jiang.

  1. 1 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  2. 2 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  3. 3 Lei Jiang China 214k citations
  4. 4 Jürgen Schmidhuber Switzerland 188k citations
  5. 5 H. Vincent Poor United States 165k citations
  6. 6 Han Zhang China 161k citations
  7. 7 Mehdi Hosseinzadeh Iran 137k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security?

The most cited paper in Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security is "Quantization index modulation: a class of provably good methods for digital watermarking and information embedding" (Bingnan Chen, Gregory W. Wornell, 2001), with 2,114 citations. Next come "Threat of Adversarial Attacks on Deep Learning in Computer Vision: A Survey" (2,089) and "Adversarial Examples in the Physical World" (1,839).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Quantization index modulation: a class of provably good methods for digital watermarking and information embedding Bingnan Chen, Gregory W. Wornell · IEEE Transactions on Information Theory May 2001 2,114
2 Threat of Adversarial Attacks on Deep Learning in Computer Vision: A Survey Naveed Hassan Akhtar, Ajmal Saeed Mian · IEEE Access Open access 2018 2,089
3 Adversarial Examples in the Physical World Alexey Kurakin, Ian Goodfellow, Samy Bengio Book chapterOpen access 27 Jul 2018 1,839
4 Examining smart-card security under the threat of power analysis attacks Thomas S. Messerges, Ezzy A. Dabbish, Robert H. Sloan · IEEE Transactions on Computers May 2002 1,705
5 Silicon physical random functions Blaise Gassend, Dwaine Clarke, Marten van Dijk et al. Conference paper 18 Nov 2002 1,663
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security research done?

The largest centres of Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Gainesville (United States), Nanjing (China) and Seoul (South Korea). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Gainesville, Santa Clara and Indore.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 248 works
  2. 2 GainesvilleUnited States 113 works
  3. 3 NanjingChina 71 works
  4. 4 SeoulSouth Korea 68 works
  5. 5 SingaporeSingapore 66 works
  6. 6 ShanghaiChina 66 works
  7. 7 TokyoJapan 59 works
  8. 8 Xi'anChina 55 works
  9. 9 CoimbatoreIndia 51 works
  10. 10 WuhanChina 45 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. GainesvilleUS · 113.2 works23×
  2. Santa ClaraUS · 22.1 works20×
  3. IndoreIN · 33.5 works17×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security than the world average.

See Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security on the map

Where is the best place to study Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Florida, National University of Singapore and Northeastern University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 17.5%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Northeastern Univers…Massachusetts Instit…National University …University of Florida
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of FloridaUnited States 65.78.5%27.5×113 +58.8%
2National University of SingaporeSingapore 56.814.8%3.9×18 +28.5%
3Northeastern UniversityChina 55.532.2%2.5×8 +39.2%
4Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States 53.522.7%3.2×9 +26.8%
5Queen's University BelfastUnited Kingdom 50.519.6%8.3×11 +46.7%
6Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 49.412.0%11.0×34 -20.1%
7Radboud University NijmegenNetherlands 48.616.0%5.1×12 +107.4%
8Xidian UniversityChina 46.714.8%7.4×21 +205.9%
9Wenzhou UniversityChina 44.318.6%12.6×10 +251.6%
10Zhejiang UniversityChina 44.115.8%2.0×21 +81.9%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security, country by country

Is Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 38% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.017% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security0.021% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security9.7% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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