Accession Number:

AD1076112

Title:

Programmable Photolithographic Masks for Novel Trust and Assurance Approaches

Descriptive Note:

Conference Paper

Corporate Author:

GLOBALFOUNDRIES Essex Junction United States

Personal Author(s):

• Hall,Ezra
• Rankin,Jed
• Vaid,Alok

Report Date:

2019-03-25

Pagination or Media Count:

5.0

Abstract:

As economic and technical motivations drive advanced node integrated circuit IC complexity to 100s of millions to billions of transistors per IC, the ability to tailor or modify an IC post design and fabrication becomes increasingly important. At the same time, adversaries are becoming increasingly skilled at compromising ICs, driving the need for mitigations such as obfuscation and individual IC authentication and authorization. Existing approaches can utilize volatile andor nonvolatile memory, combined with embedded logic, but such approaches have limitations. In this paper a novel on the fly programmable photolithographic mask structure and associated manufacturing method is described to implement an approach suitable for nondisruptive integration into high volume manufacturing environments. With this new ability to tailor each individual IC during semiconductor manufacturing, an entire new class of IC designs is possible through customization of millions of dense embedded hidden non-differentiated on chip structures, on an individual IC basis. Novel trust and assurance approaches, to combat counterfeiting and to thwart nation state adversaries, through the implementation of new obfuscation, authentication keying, feature tailoring, functionality modification, and proof of provenance, are possible with this new technology.

Descriptors:

• integrated circuits photolithography
• fabrication
• semiconductor manufacturing
• liquid crystal displays
• attenuation
• security

Subject Categories:

• Electrical and Electronic Equipment

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE