16
November
2015
|
15:23
Europe/London
Security will take a quantum leap thanks to ‘atomic fingerprinting'
Fingerprints
Scientists have discovered a way to authenticate or identify objects by creating unique and unbreakable IDs using next-generation nanomaterials.
The breakthrough is the result of a collaboration with world-leading experts at The University of Manchester and an experimental team based at Lancaster University.
The ground-breaking experiment used Resonant Tunnelling Diodes which were entirely designed and fabricated in Manchester – these specialist devices helped researchers test the notion that imperfections in materials at a nanoscale are unique and near impossible to reproduce. Effectively acting as atomic-scale fingerprints.
“Only a few months after we made and supplied the devices the team in Lancaster was able to prove the concept that the unique differences in each test device made an unbreakable code that no hacker could replicate,” explained Dr Max Migliorato, from the Sensing, Imaging and Signal Processing group at Manchester’s School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
“This is a great achievement for The University of Manchester because it shows the importance of our world-class facilities and expertise associated with semiconductor materials and device fabrication.”
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This is a great achievement for The University of Manchester because it shows the importance of our world-class facilities and expertise associated with semiconductor materials and device fabrication
Dr Max Migliorato
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Dr Migliorato said the project took root two years ago when he agreed to co-supervise PhD student Jonathan Roberts with a colleague, Dr Rob Young from Lancaster.
Jonathan Roberts is on the pioneering NowNano programme which is made up of a select group of doctorial students working with world leading scientists on two-dimensional materials. Dr Migliorato was also supported by Prof Mohamed Missous and Dr James Sexton, from Manchester’s School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Through this joint work, the Lancaster researchers successfully demonstrated a viable way to increase security using atomic-scale fingerprints that could, for example, be embedded into microchips so authenticating any kind of electronic equipment - and be 100 per cent secure.
The atomic-scale devices are a landmark because they do not require passwords – which can be deciphered - and are impervious to cloning, making them the most secure safeguarding systems ever made.
Coupled with the fact that they can be incorporated into any material makes them the perfect candidate to replace existing authentication technologies.
Writing in the prestigious Nature’s Scientific Reports, the researchers said: “Simulating these structures requires vast computing power and is not achievable in a reasonable timescale, even with a quantum computer. When coupled with the fact that the underlying structure is unknown, unless dismantled atom-by-atom, this makes simulation extremely difficult.”