Optimisation of number theoretic transform/inverse number theoretic transform architecture for crystals-kyber key encapsulation mechanism

Tam, Kai Yuan (2026) Optimisation of number theoretic transform/inverse number theoretic transform architecture for crystals-kyber key encapsulation mechanism. Final Year Project, UTAR.

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Abstract

Post-quantum cryptography is an emerging trend in research and industry due to the emergence of quantum computing technology. Advanced techniques like Shor’s algorithm, when executed on a fault-tolerant quantum computer with sufficient logical qubits, can efficiently factor large integers and solve the discrete logarithm problem, thereby breaking widely deployed classical public-key cryptographic schemes such as RSA and elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC) currently used throughout industry. Malicious attackers can store encrypted sensitive data now and try to decrypt it later, when quantum computing technology becomes mature; this is known as the “harvest now, decrypt later” threat. In this letter, we present an efficient hardware architecture for accelerating the Number Theoretic Transform (NTT) and Inverse Number Theoretic Transform (INTT), the key operations in the lattice-based post-quantum key encapsulation mechanism ML-KEM, which is also a standard released by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. The key contributions are an area-time-efficient NTT architecture, a novel shared-DSP NTT multiplier, and a highly optimized DSP-less design with a 35% better area-time product (ATP) compared to the state of the art. The proposed method also allows flexibility to choose between a more power-efficient architecture using two DSPs, a more area-time-efficient one that does not use any DSPs, and a balanced design with one shared DSP.

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