Career: optimally detected noise waveforms with hardware fingerprints

The National Science Foundation Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems awarded The University of Alabama in Huntsville $600,000 on September 1, 2026, under the Engineering CAREER program (CFDA 47.041) to develop novel open-source circuits that embed hardware-dependent fingerprints as security features directly within communication waveforms. The project unifies communication systems with hardware security through co-designed circuit topologies that provide optimally detected noise waveforms with embedded authentication primitives, reducing design complexity and power consumption while advancing device authentication and manufacturing provenance verification in congested, spectrum-constrained networked environments across homes, factories, vehicles, critical infrastructure, and defense systems.

Deliverables include the development of prototype circuits, open-source hardware resources, curriculum materials, and undergraduate research participation opportunities. Outreach activities target student populations historically underrepresented in microelectronics design, with particular focus on Northern Alabama's Appalachian region. Work is performed in Huntsville, Alabama, with a period of performance from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2031. The award is classified as a Project Grant, an assistance type supporting research and development work through direct funding to the recipient institution.

Abstract

Everyday devices rely on interconnected communication among one another in homes, factories, vehicles, critical infrastructure, and national defense systems. As these networks grow, their operation faces challenges related to crowding, security, and trust. Modern communication schemes must allow for congested environments while preserving privacy, validating identities, establishing trust, verifying manufacturing provenance, and sharing the electromagnetic spectrum as a limited natural resource. Current engineered systems tend to develop communication and security features separately. The development of communication systems typically focuses on the accurate and efficient transmission of information while the development of security systems typically focuses on authenticating devices and preventing the misuse of information. This separation can increase design complexity, power consumption, and cause security issues. This career project unifies communication systems directly to hardware security by creating novel, open-source circuits that provide optimally detected waveforms with hardware-dependent fingerprints as naturally embedded security features. As a result, future communication systems may benefit from the linked CO-design of communication waveforms and hardware security primitives through a shared circuit topology. The circuits developed in this work will expand beyond scientific contribution towards developing the microelectronics and cybersecurity workforce with particular focus on open-source integrated circuit development. This work will provide the public with electronics and security related materials via curriculum development, undergraduate research participation, and open-source hardware resources. Outreach activities will engage student populations that historically are outside of microelectronics design ecosystems by involving northern alabama?S appalachian region and central alabama?S black belt communities with hands-on exercises suitable for K-12 and lifelong learners. This project addresses the challenge of developing electronic circuits whose combined communication performance and security properties are characterized with clear traceability to first-principles mathematical theory. The central scientific problem is how to generate communication waveforms that are optimally detected from hardware that encodes unclonable, device-dependent fingerprints into signals due to physical manufacturing variations. The approach will consist of three integrated thrusts including (I) the optimal detection of a new class of solvable, nonautonomous chaos via simple matched-filter receivers, (II) the analysis and control of these chaotic systems as a communication link, and (III) the hardware security utilization of signals from these systems in their regions of determinism, device-dependent manufacturing repeatability, and true randomness to extract both fingerprints and true random numbers. This work will develop new theory, open-source circuit designs, and experiments for this novel class of solvable chaotic systems. Importantly, unlike previously studied chaotic communication circuits, these oscillators exhibit closed-form mathematical expressions for their analysis and validation as communication components and hardware security primitives. Together, these advances will generate hardware-authenticated, spread-spectrum waveforms suitable for simple matched filter receivers that serve the future of secure, multi-user communication systems. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are not planned for this award.