SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker, has partnered with Seoul National University, South Korea’s most prestigious public university, to develop a breakthrough security technology that enables clone-resistant encryption directly within NAND flash memory.
The advancement opens the door to embedding security features in storage devices without the need for additional hardware, positioning SK Hynix to potentially enter the secure memory market.
Several media outlets report that the joint research team has developed a technology that allows NAND flash to generate unique cryptographic keys based on its own physical properties.
The breakthrough was published in the journal Nature Communications earlier this month, under the title “Concealable Physical Unclonable Functions Using Vertical NAND Flash Memory.”
The researchers implemented Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) technology—which creates unique, tamper-resistant encryption values based on minute differences in the semiconductor manufacturing process—directly in NAND.
While PUF has been used in logic-based systems or dedicated security chips, it had been difficult to apply to NAND due to its inherent variability and error susceptibility.
To overcome these limitations, the team developed fine-tuned correction techniques and high-speed encoding circuits tailored for NAND.
By leveraging electrical noise and variation between cells, they succeeded in producing stable and unique encryption keys within standard NAND structures—without requiring additional circuitry.
Security-enhanced NAND is expected to find applications in autonomous vehicles, AI edge devices, and data centers, offering benefits in authentication, secure storage, and anti-cloning. Because the technology eliminates the need for separate security chips, it could simplify design, reduce costs, and support device miniaturization.
If commercialized, SK Hynix could integrate this functionality into its products, enabling NAND chips with built-in encryption and authentication.
This opens up new opportunities in high-security markets such as industrial IoT, defense, aerospace, and financial terminals.
The project was supported by SK Hynix and conducted as part of the BK21 Fourth Stage project for fostering future talent at Seoul National University.
