New Trust Approach Development

Abstract

This project funds a program of research to develop the next generation, technology data-driven approach to microelectronics assurance, to include state-of-the-art (SOTA) microelectronics, to ensure continued access to SOTA microelectronic technologies while maintaining the required level of assurance in all environments. DoD’s ability to access commercial technology for its custom, secure, and assured needs is diminishing as SOTA suppliers become fewer and more focused on serving the global commercial market. DoD’s technology needs are broad, and relying on a single source supplier is not feasible. Alternative, advanced manufacturing methods, technologies, and design tools are needed to produce secure and assured SOTA parts from commercial sources and to preserve access to these advanced nodes while protecting DoD and Defense Industrial Base intellectual property (IP) from exploitation. It is also intended to dramatically improve the capabilities of core Trusted & Assured Microelectronics laboratories with regard to verification and validation of SOTA microelectronics assurance. This program of research will develop, demonstrate, and implement quantitative and innovative design, manufacturing, imaging, tagging, and control and assessment approaches for protecting DoD’s microelectronics supply chain and IP, including alternatives for trusted and assured strategic radiation-hardened electronics in advanced technology nodes for next-generation strategic systems, obfuscation and disaggregation technology development, and other assurance mitigations. It will develop, demonstrate, and implement advanced imaging technologies and forensics, Design for Assurance techniques, active hardware assurance controls, electronic component markers, and a data and analysis capability to enable auditing, provenance and traceability, and independent verification and validation of commercial and specialized DoD designs. It will also develop, demonstrate, and implement concepts for the cost-effective production of custom microelectronics in low volumes and protection of sensitive IP from exploitation. Assurance technologies that can be applied in a broad range of trusted and commercial environments can mitigate the risk associated with sole-source suppliers and increase the Government’s ability to leverage commercial capabilities. The suite of developed technologies, e.g., alternative manufacturing methods and design tools, will enable DoD to obfuscate the purpose of sensitive devices, verify their origin and function, and protect sensitive IP from exploitation even while using the global supply chain for most hardware. In cases in which the risk involved precludes that level of commercial collaboration, low-volume manufacturing technologies developed under this project would permit DoD to more cheaply produce low volumes of sensitive microelectronics in secure environments. The project would also support using a repository of vetted third-party IP and electronic data automation (EDA) tools to expedite circuit design and transition promising technologies to use. This project initially received additional funding in FY 2019 to support Microelectronics Innovation for National Security and Economic Competitiveness (MINSEC) efforts in the following focus areas: capture and secure microelectronics R&D; new microelectronics development; radiation hardening by process (RHBP) and radiation hardening by design (RHBD); and radio frequency (RF) and optoelectronics. In FY 2019, funding for those MINSEC activities was reallocated from projects P-646 to P-647.

Document Details

• Document Type: Project
• Publication Date: Oct 01, 2022
• Source ID: 646_0604294D8Z_4_0400_PB_2022

Tags

Readers

• Cybersecurity.
• Defense Technology Research and Development.
• Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.

Technology Areas

• Microelectronics