Mario Lanza

Phase Change and Memory

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

Email: Mario.lanza@kaust.edu.sa

Biography

      Mario Lanza got a PhD in Electronic Engineering (with honors) in 2010 at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. In 2010-2011 he was NSFC postdoc at Peking University, and in 2012-2013 he was Marie Curie postdoc at Stanford University. In October 2013 he joined Soochow University as Associate Professor, and in March 2017 he was promoted to Full Professor. Since October 2020 he is an Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), in Saudi Arabia. Prof. Lanza has published over 120 research papers, including 2 Science, 5 Nature Electronics and multiple IEDM (among others) and has registered four patents (one of them granted with 1 million USD). He is the editor-in-chief of the journal Microelectronic Engineering (Elsevier), a Distinguished Lecturer of the Electron Devices Society (IEEE-EDS), and serves in the board of many other journals and conferences, including IEEE-IEDM and IEEE-IRPS. Prof. Lanza leads a research group formed by 10-15 PhD students and postdocs, and they investigate how to improve electronic devices and circuits using 2D materials, with special emphasis on resistive switching applications.

Abstract for Presentation

Using memristive memories to generate random numbers for data encryption

    Advanced data encryption requires the use of true random number generators (TRNG) to produce unpredictable sequences of bits. TRNG circuits with high degree of randomness and low power consumption may be fabricated by using the random telegraph noise (RTN) current signals produced by polarized metal/insulator/metal (MIM) devices as entropy source. However, the RTN signals produced by MIM devices made of traditional insulators, i.e. transition metal oxides like HfO2 and Al2O3, are not enough stable due to the formation and lateral expansion of defect clusters, resulting in undesired current fluctuations and the disappearance of the RTN effect. In this talk I will present the fabrication of highly-stable TRNG circuits with low power consumption, high degree of randomness (even for a long string of 1.6 million of bits) and high throughput of 1 Mbit/s by using MIM devices made of multilayer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN); we also demonstrate their application to produce one time passwords ideal for the internet-of-everything. The superior stability of the h-BN based TRNG is related to the presence of few-atoms-wide defects embedded within the layered and crystalline structure of the h-BN stack, which produces a confinement effect that avoids their lateral expansion and results in stable operation [1-3]

References

[1] Xuehua Li, Tommaso Zanotti, Tao Wang, Kaichen Zhu, Francesco Maria Puglisi, Mario Lanza*, Random telegraph noise in metal-oxide memristors for true random number generators: a materials study, Advanced Functional Materials, 2102172 (2021).
[2] Chao Wen, Xuehua Li, Tommaso Zanotti, Francesco M. Puglisi, Yuanyuan Shi, Fernan Saiz, Aleandro Antidormi, Stephan Roche, Wenwen Zheng, Xianhu Liang, Jiaxin Hu, Steffen Duhm, Juan B. Roldan, Tianru Wu, Victoria Chen, Eric Pop, Blas Garrido, Kaichen Zhu, Fei Hui, Mario Lanza*, Advanced data encryption using two-dimensional materials, Advanced Materials 2021, 33 (27), 2100185.
[3] Thales Becker, Xuehua Li, Pedro Alves, Tao Wang, Kaichen Zhu, Yiping Xiao, Gilson Wirth, Mario Lanza*, An Electrical Model for Trap Coupling Effects on Random Telegraph Noise, IEEE Electron Device Letters 41 (10), 1596-1599, 2020.