Trusted and Assured Microelectronics

Abstract

This Program Element (PE) implements, maintains, and updates the DoD’s long-term microelectronics strategy and places emphasis on incentivizing and proving new microelectronics technology solutions. In FY 2019 funding for the Joint Federated Assurance Center (JFAC) hardware and software assurance and integrity analysis activities and Microelectronic Innovation for National Security and Economic Competitiveness (MINSEC) activities were reallocated under Project 291 and Project 647, respectively. This PE supports the 2018 National Defense Strategy’s (NDS) line of effort to build a more lethal force through modernization of key capabilities and the NDS defense objective of establishing an unmatched twenty-first century National Security Innovation Base that effectively supports Department operations and sustains security and solvency. Recognizing that a trusted and assured supply of microelectronics is a U.S. Government (USG)-wide concern, this activity will interface with interagency partners to take into account interagency requirements, opportunities for collaboration, and strategic decisions that can be made to limit the overall cost of these requirements to the USG. Its goal is to mitigate the Department of Defense (DoD)’s reliance on sole source foundries for trusted state-of-the-art (SOTA) microelectronics. It supports activities to ensure critical and sensitive integrated circuits are available to meet the DoD’s needs. It refines strategies and management planning activities implementing three integrated, complementary solutions that: (1) protect the Intellectual Property (IP) of microelectronics components; (2) improve capabilities to evaluate and validate the trust and assurance of microelectronic parts and advance standards to incentivise the commercial marketplace to recognize hardware assurance as a competitive design standard; (3) develop and demonstrate alternative approaches to the DoD Trusted Foundry program to assure the microelectronics supply chain; and (4) provide access to and leadership in advanced microelectronics that are vital to the national security and economic competitiveness for the USG in order to enable DoD and broader USG access to commercial SOTA microelectronics technology. This activity is being led by the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. This activity is conducted, in coordination with the JFAC Steering Committee and the Science and Technology (S&T) Advisory Board, by performers, such as the JFAC service providers, Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA), the Defense Advanced Research Programs Agency (DARPA), and other DoD and Intelligence Community S&T organizations and laboratories in the area of hardware assurance (HwA) and software assurance (SwA). It is integrating with, and supporting, the functions of the DoD Trusted Foundry Program, the Trusted Supplier accreditation program, JFAC, and related HwA and SwA S&T actions. This activity is also expected to maintain and update the DoD long-term microelectronics strategy based on feedback from the execution of this PE and enable and leverage commercial and academic relationships as necessary to fulfill this mission.

Document Details

• Document Type: R2 Budgetary Justification
• Publication Date: Oct 01, 2020
• Source ID: 0604294D8Z_4_0400_PB_2020
• Change Summary Explanation: FY 2019 funding in the amount of $291.000 million was added to support acceleration efforts for MINSEC, JFAC, and strategic radiation-hardening activities. In FY 2020, $302.000 million was added to provide access and assurance to domestic microelectronics production capabilities under Project 647, and $3.887 million was added to increase JFAC-related efforts under Project 291.
• Service Agency Name: Office of the Secretary Of Defense

Entities

Organizations

• Office of the Secretary of Defense

Tags

Communities of Interest

• Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

• Application-Specific Integrated Circuits
• Artificial Intelligence
• Best Practices
• Business Administration
• Circuit Boards
• Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductors
• Department Of Defense
• Engineering
• Fabrication
• Field Programmable Gate Arrays
• Integrated Circuits
• Intellectual Property
• National Security
• Printed Circuits
• Semiconductor Manufacturing
• Semiconductors
• Vulnerability

Readers

• Cybersecurity.
• Defense Technology Research and Development.

Technology Areas

• Microelectronics