Hybrid PUF Tag Generation Technology for Battery Anti-counterfeiting

HE Zhangqing; LUO Siyu; ZHANG Junming; ZHANG Yin; WAN Meilin

doi:10.11999/JEIT250967

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HE Zhangqing, LUO Siyu, ZHANG Junming, ZHANG Yin, WAN Meilin. Hybrid PUF Tag Generation Technology for Battery Anti-counterfeiting[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT250967

Citation:

HE Zhangqing, LUO Siyu, ZHANG Junming, ZHANG Yin, WAN Meilin. Hybrid PUF Tag Generation Technology for Battery Anti-counterfeiting[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT250967

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Hybrid PUF Tag Generation Technology for Battery Anti-counterfeiting

doi: 10.11999/JEIT250967 cstr: 32379.14.JEIT250967

1.
College of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, China
2.
College of Physics and Electronics, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China

Funds: National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.: 62271194, 62304073), Joint Fund Project of Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Grant No.: 2025AFD029)

Accepted Date: 2026-01-04
Rev Recd Date: 2026-01-04

Available Online: 2026-01-15

Abstract

Abstract

Objective With the global transition towards a low-carbon economy, power batteries have become crucial energy storage carriers. The traceability and security of their entire life cycle are foundational to industrial governance. In 2023, the Global Battery Alliance (GBA) introduced the "Battery Passport" system, requiring each battery to have a unique, tamper-proof, and verifiable digital identity. However, traditional digital tag solutions—such as QR codes and RFID—rely on pre-written static storage, making them vulnerable to physical cloning, data extraction, and environmental degradation. To address these issues, this paper proposes a battery anti-counterfeiting tag generation technology based on hybrid Physical Unclonable Function (PUF). The technology leverages a triple physical coupling mechanism among the battery, PCB, and IC to generate a unique battery ID, ensuring strong physical binding and anti-counterfeiting capabilities at the system level. Methods The proposed battery anti-counterfeiting tag consists of four core modules: an off-chip RC battery fingerprint extraction circuit, an on-chip Arbiter PUF module, an on-chip delay compensation module, and a reliability enhancement module. The off-chip RC circuit utilizes the physical coupling between the battery negative tab and the PCB's copper-clad area to form a capacitor structure, which introduces inherent manufacturing variations as a entropy source. The on-chip Arbiter PUF converts manufacturing deviations into a unique digital signature. To mitigate systemic biases caused by asymmetrical routing and off-circuit delays, a programmable delay compensation module with coarse and fine-tuning units is integrated. A reliability enhancement module is also embedded to automatically filter out unreliable response bits by monitoring delay deviations, thereby improving the reliability of the generated responses without complex error-correcting codes. Results and Discussions The proposed structure was implemented and tested using an FPGA Spartan-6 chip, a custom PCB, and 100Ah blade batteries. Experimental results demonstrate excellent performance: the randomness of the tag reached 48.85%, and the uniqueness averaged 49.15% under normal conditions (Fig. 11). The stability (RA) was as high as 99.98% at room temperature and normal voltage, and remained above 98% even under extreme conditions (100°C, 1.05V) (Fig. 12). To evaluate anti-desoldering capability, three physical tampering scenarios were tested: battery replacement, PCB replacement, and IC replacement. The average response change rates were 14.86%, 24.58%, and 41.66%, respectively (Fig. 13), confirming the strong physical binding among the battery, PCB, and chip. These results validate that the proposed triple physical coupling mechanism effectively resists counterfeiting and tampering. Conclusions This paper presents a battery anti-counterfeiting tag generation technology based on a triple physical coupling mechanism. By binding the battery tab, PCB, and chip into a unified physical structure and extracting unique fingerprints from manufacturing variations, the proposed method achieves high randomness, uniqueness, and stability. The tag is highly sensitive to physical tampering, providing a reliable foundation for battery authentication throughout its life cycle. Future work will focus on validating the structure with more advanced chip fabrication processes and different PCB manufacturers, as well as further optimizing the design for broader application.
- Battery passport,
- anti-counterfeiting ta,
- Physical Unclonable Function,
- delay compensation

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References(16)

References

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