Apparatus and method for generating true random bits based on time summation of an electronics noise source

摘要

An electronics device and associated method use an electronics noise source for production of truly random sequence of bits with a very small bias. The bias is defined as a difference between probability that a generator produce a high logical level bit and the ideal value of 0.5.The electronics noise source may, for example, be realized with a semiconductor Zener diode. The electronics noise source is AC coupled to a comparator with a self-regulating bias which ensures roughly equal probability of low and high states at the output of the comparator. The output of the said comparator is filtered through a stage composed of one JK flip-flop followed by an edge-triggered D flip-flop. This double flip-flop stage eliminates statistical bias and delivers a bit upon a request. A partial mathematical proof is presented which shows that that this generator, in the limit of low enough sampling rate, produces truly random bits. Complete proof can be found elsewhere (Stipcevic).If needed, a number of bits that are sequentially read form the generator can be grouped together to form random integer or real numbers.