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 production capability is of increasing importance as domestic semiconductor manufacturing resources continue to decline, especially in the scarce domestic production capacity of high performance and state-of-the-art semiconductor technologies as illustrated by the recent acquisition of IBM’s semiconductor manufacturing capability by GlobalFoundries. This acquisition, caused by economic pressures, has again highlighted the fact that commercial sources of microelectronics remain inherently unpredictable and constitute a continued supply chain risk regardless of Government investment. 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 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 Trusted Access Program Office has contracted with commercial sources to satisfy state-of-the-art semiconductor requirements. DMEA will focus on fostering all viable alternatives to continue the vital supply of Trusted and assured microelectronics, including the work of the DMEA Trusted Access Program Office with commercial state-of-the-art industry. It is imperative for a wide range of technologies in ongoing and future Department 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, 2017
- Source ID
- 2_0603720S_3_0400_PB_2017
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