Way back in January Darpa said it needs technical solutions to ensure the trustworthiness of integrated circuits which are largely manufactured overseas but essential to the reliability of U.S. military technology. The Trust in Integrated Circuits program solicitation only received one proposal from the University of Southern California, which received a $13 million award to deliver test items for the program. Work is scheduled for completion in February 2012.

The Defense Department already has a Trusted Foundry Program that facilitates the secure domestic manufacturing of ICs, but Darpa said the program can't meet the military's needs. The Trust in IC program is intended to supplement the foundry system by ensuring the quality of ICs manufactured overseas.

These trends have raised concerns regarding U.S. weapons systems reliance on high-performance ICs and the potential vulnerabilities of these systems caused by malicious manipulation of hardware and software processes that could render them inoperable at some future time. This situation is true for some ICs currently in use, such as Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), and for commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) configurable parts, such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). Furthermore, protecting intellectual property and military secrets is problematic because these are often embedded in the design of ICs, and the manufacturer in the fabrication process often needs the details of the designs.

The Defense Science Board detailed these problems back in a 2005 report. You can also read about it in this Manufacturing News story.

Photo Credit: U.S. Army