DISCOVER
Abstract
(U) The DISCOVER program will continue and expand the efforts initiated in TrUST, and focus on the more difficult problem of indentifying rogue components or circuitry in unknown designs. The Department of Defense has become increasingly reliant on electronic parts and systems fabricated outside of the United States. In many cases, these parts have also been designed in foreign countries, and there is currently no method available to decipher the full functionality of these circuits that may contain billions of transistors. Even if the part is designed domestically, there is currently no way of verifying that tampering has not occurred during fabrication, especially as processing technology scales to near atomic length scales. Unreliable electronic systems could potentially compromise the warfighter’s mission or safety. DISCOVER will advance non-destructive reverse engineering of integrated circuits whose functionality is not known a priori. These tools will be compatible with leading edge 32 nanometer Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) node size. These tools will ensure that an integrated circuits has full functionality and will provide verification that no malicious changes have been introduced.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2011
- Source ID
- ff6928472310d17da37042febae4953c