Trusted Foundry
Abstract
The Department and the National Security Agency (NSA) require uninterruptible access to state-of-the-art design and manufacturing processes to produce custom integrated circuits designed specifically for military purposes. Under DODI 5200.44, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) in critical/essential systems must be procured from Trusted sources in order to avoid tampered or sabotaged parts. Worldwide competition from foreign, state-subsidized manufacturing facilities continues to greatly reduce the number of U.S. semiconductor fabrication facilities that might be Trusted sources. The prevalence of sophisticated offshore design and manufacturing facilities with economic incentives of state subsidies have resulted in the outsourcing of electronics component and integrated circuit services to these offshore facilities. This trend threatens the integrity and worldwide leadership of the U.S. semiconductor industry by eliminating many domestic suppliers and reducing access to Trusted fabrication sources for advanced technologies. This trend is of acute concern to the defense and intelligence communities. Secure communications and cryptographic applications, among other areas of defense interest, depend heavily upon high performance semiconductors where a generation of improvement can translate into a significant force multiplier and capability advantage. Important defense technology investments and demonstrations carry size, weight, power, and performance goals that can only be met through the use of the most sophisticated semiconductors. The Trusted Microelectronics program provides the Department and NSA with access to the Trusted state-of-the-art microelectronics design and manufacturing capabilities necessary to meet their confidentiality, integrity, availability, performance and delivery needs. The program also provides the Services with a competitive cadre of accredited Trusted suppliers that can meet the needs of their mission critical/essential systems for Trusted integrated circuit components. The NSA Trusted Access Program Office has successfully contracted with commercial sources to satisfy their state-of-the-art semiconductor requirements. It is imperative for a wide range of technologies in ongoing and future Department/ and NSA systems that access to Trusted suppliers continues. Most importantly, Trusted Microelectronics access is absolutely necessary to meet secure communication and cryptographic needs requiring state-of-the-art semiconductor technologies.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Project
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2016
- Source ID
- 2_0603720S_3_0400_PB_2016
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