Brain-inspired security primitive for secure hardware in space

About the Project

Supervisory Team: Dr Firman Simanjuntak and Dr Basel Halak

Memristors mimic how the brain learns—offering low-cost, secure, and energy-efficient computing. This PhD tackles challenges limiting their adoption, from ageing to variability, to create unforgeable, self-identifying chips.

Memristor is an emerging memory device that can mimic the synaptic function of the brain and exhibit intrinsic characteristics that can be exploited to support the development of secure and resilient electronic systems. This is due to their resilience to side-channel analysis, stochasticity, and low cost. For example, the stochasticity of memory devices can be exploited to build securely identifiable systems. Such systems could create hardware whose identity is encoded into atomic-scale device configurations and, therefore, be practically impossible to forge.

However, several outstanding challenges currently prevent the wider adoption of Memristor technologies for security applications:

• reliability issues related to device ageing and device-to-device variability
• memristors do not come with any standard CMOS support that would be required for developing any novel circuitry that exploits their characteristics
• as such circuits emerge, new comprehensive analysis and security metrics must be devised to benchmark their performance

We aim to tackle these issues that will allow us to deliver a cornerstone for building unforgeable electronic devices that are resilient to side channel analysis and, overall, a step change in our digital economy.

In the first year, you will be trained to build memristor chip prototypes employing our state-of-the-art cleanroom facility. You will investigate the synaptic response of the devices and exploit this response to generate random entropy and design memristor-based identity generators into atomic-scale device configurations that will be impossible to forge.

In the second year, you will conduct a practical evaluation of reliability issues in cryogenic temperature and X-ray radiation. You will investigate the voltage variations and ageing acceleration to devise appropriate mitigation approaches.

In the third year, you will develop application demonstrator hardware-based end-to-end security solutions from the device to the network, which include the key management scheme and state-of-the-art cryptographic APIs for securely authenticating devices remotely and the detection of tampering attempts.

Von Ardenne GmbH (Germany) will be the industrial partner of this project and will provide in-kind contribution similar to the commitment we provide to our collaborative EPSRC-funded SPICA project. The contribution includes:

• utilization of thin film deposition tools: we will make available our advanced thin film deposition equipment for the development and prototyping of memristor devices.
• materials supply: we will supply high-purity semiconductor materials and consumables required for the thin-film deposition.
• technical expertise: our senior engineer technology will provide technical guidance on thin film deposition process optimization.

Entry requirements

You must have a UK 2:1 honours degree or its international equivalent.

Fees and funding

We offer a range of funding opportunities for both UK and international students. Horizon Europe fee waivers automatically cover the difference between overseas and UK fees for qualifying students.

Competition-based Presidential Bursaries from the University cover the difference between overseas and UK fees for top-ranked applicants.

Competition-based studentships offered by our schools typically cover UK-level tuition fees and a stipend for living costs for top-ranked applicants.

Funding will be awarded on a rolling basis, so apply early for the best opportunity to be considered.

For more information, please visit our postgraduate research funding pages.

How to apply

Apply now

You need to:

• choose programme type (Research), 2026/27, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences
• select Full time or Part time
• choose the relevant PhD Electronic & Electrical Engineering (7092)
• add name of the supervisor in section 2

Applications should include:

• research proposal
• your CV (resumé)
• 2 academic references
• degree transcripts to date
• English language qualification (if applicable)

Contact us

Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

If you have a general question, email: feps-pgr-apply@soton.ac.uk

Project leader

For an initial conversation, f.m.simanjuntak@soton.ac.uk