Low-power flexible GF(p) elliptic-curve cryptography processor

In this paper, we present a very low power standard public-key cryptography processor for use in power-limited applications. The proposed prime-field elliptic-curve cryptography processor is flexible in terms of field and curve parameters. The power consumption of the structure is minimized by simplifying the architecture and circuit implementation. To assess the power efficiency of the design, we have implemented the processor for 192-bit fields using a standard 0.13 mum CMOS technology. The simulation results show that the processor consumes only 26.3 muW/MHz which is considerably lower than the power consumptions reported for similar designs. The hardware completes a 192-bit scalar multiplication in 1.15 s at a frequency of 13.56 MHz. With these specifications, the proposed processor may be used in many applications of RFID tags and wireless sensors.