Stories

In 1965, Gordon E. Moore, CEO of Fairchild Semiconductor, foresaw the next half-century of technological advancement when he predicted that the number of transistors on a microchip would double every few years, thereby exponentially increasing their speed and processing power. Moore’s Law, as it became known, has held true for decades, allowing for the rapid rise of smaller, cheaper electronics.

From smart thermostats and faster mobile phones to self-driving cars and modern radar systems, the fingerprints of Moore’s prescient prognosis are everywhere. At KBR, trusted microelectronics — small electronic components and computer chips — are a key component of thousands of defense projects. And while it appears Moore’s Law will reach its theoretical limit this decade, the universal presence of these silicon chip-powered devices continues its exponential trajectory.

They also pose an unprecedented national security threat.

Around the same time as Moore’s prediction, NASA’s Apollo program, supported by KBR, began to use integrated circuits (IC) in its guidance computers — a pivotal move that led to the establishment of a world market for IC. Since that point, microelectronics have appeared in nearly every Department of Defense (DoD) system, from modern aircraft to missiles. If these microelectronics were to become compromised, the impact could be devastating.

“If any system that uses microelectronics has been corrupted, has an unexpected functionality, or has been compromised in any way by an adversary, it could prevent the system from working in a wartime situation. It could cause our missions to fail,” said Bruce Hart, senior director of Cyber Analytics for KBR’s Defense and Intel business unit. “So, the question remains: how do you develop microelectronics securely, and how do you detect any kind of modification that may have been made to a microelectronic design?”

Those questions are necessary due to the continued globalization of the microelectronics supply chain. The swift rise of microelectronics has led to a rapid rise in demand, one which semiconductor fabrication plants, or foundries, can’t keep up with.

“It’s not possible for our domestic foundries to keep pace with foundries in Asia that are manufacturing cell phones continually and pushing state-of-the-art building components,” said Hart.

According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, government entities accounted for $5.2 billion of end-use semiconductor sales in 2019, a 13% annual increase. However, government use only accounts for a 1.3% share of the global semiconductor demand. Simply put, even as the DoD’s demand for microelectronics grows, that demand is still dwarfed by commercial needs.

Adding to the problem is that fact that domestic foundries are still susceptible to insider threats or outside influence due to mergers or foreign investment. That’s why last year the DoD adopted a “Zero Trust” approach to buying microelectronics, which assumes nothing the department buys is safe to use without verification and validation.

“Even if you are manufacturing some parts here, that doesn’t mean those are secured, because the supply chain for everything in those foundries is still heavily reliant on the foreign supply chain,” said Dr. Santanu Bag, KBR research program manager. “For chips manufactured domestically, there will always be a need to verify the vulnerability.”

These potential vulnerabilities include counterfeit devices and malicious hardware trojans, which can lead to intellectual property theft and leakage of sensitive information. For this reason, the mitigation of these hardware security vulnerabilities requires drastic changes to the status quo of microelectronics design, assessment, validation and verification.

Enter KBR’s Trusted Microelectronics group.

These multidisciplinary teams can develop novel techniques for a broad array of state-of-the-art microelectronics systems. They also collaborate with government agencies, academic researchers and commercial businesses to tackle problems posed by supply chain security.

KBR was recently awarded a $194.3 million task order to research, develop, test, and analyze the design and fabrication of microelectronics components, verifying and validating their trustworthiness for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Trusted Electronics Branch (RYDT). Under the task order, KBR performs multidisciplinary research and development of design best practices and methodologies for trusted systems in the digital and analog realms.

The team will also develop unique and science-driven counterfeit detection schemes through microelectronic device characterization methodology, as well as advanced fabrication and packaging schemes for trusted microelectronics.

“We have people on the verifications and validations and reliability side to make sure the chips we are getting are designed and manufactured in the proper way and doing what they are supposed to do,” said Dr. Bag. “At the same time, we want to test the reliability of the chips, so we have people putting them in simulated environments. This way, when those chips are placed on an aircraft or in other harsh environments, we can know how long they are going to last.”

Another aspect of KBR’s trusted microelectronics capability comes from Hart’s team, which designs chips “to ensure we have a secure architecture that leverages intellectual property that has been verified, invented and has no vulnerabilities,” he said. There is also a cybersecurity team that explores how to defensively identify cyber vulnerabilities in electronic components and systems, such as avionics that use microelectronics.

Importantly, being able to field such a diverse team is what makes KBR so unique in this field.

“Because the nature of the work is so diverse, you need a diverse team,” said Dr. Bag. “No one person has all the kinds of expertise needed for the full spectrum of tasks.”

The team’s diversity is also a key reason that KBR has engaged with the University of Cincinnati’s Hardware and Embedded Systems Security and Trust (CHEST) Center, which is helping to build out a domestic workforce that can fulfill the government’s need for more microelectronics trust and assurance expertise. That workforce will be important because, like Gordon E. Moore, the KBR team is focused on the future.

“Things are changing rapidly, especially as we move into the 5G era, when we will rely on these new chips in autonomous vehicles,” said Daron DiSabato, senior design engineer. “These vehicles are produced with parts from all over the world, especially the electronics. If something were to get into one of those, you’re putting lives on the line.”

Added Hart: “We haven’t really seen that vulnerability out there yet, but we know it’s coming down the pike.”