AUTOMATED PROCESS FOR CODESIGN OF RADIATION HARDENING AND SECURITY

Objective: To develop next generation microelectronics design and integration approaches that simultaneously result in resilience to ionizing radiation and enhanced security. Description: To achieve mission objectives, many national security systems require microelectronics with some level of radiation resilience or hardness. Being embedded in national security systems, microelectronics often have security or trust requirements as well. However, radiation hardness and security are usually developed independently and in isolation from each other. This call for proposals is to co-develop approaches to simultaneously achieve both radiation resilience and security. Radiation resilience can be achieved by design techniques like standard cell optimizations, architectural innovations, or novel concepts of operation. Security can be achieved through approaches like obfuscation, redaction, and encryption. In each case, the technical approach is often a bespoke solution that requires customization to achieve the desired outcome which results in long and costly development cycles. Therefore, technologies that employ automation to shorten development cycles are required. Automation can take many forms, from generators that define circuit topologies to emulators that predict performance before the design is fabricated. For this activity, microelectronics can comprise monolithic integrated circuits or heterogeneously integrated systems. Proposals that develop technologies to obfuscate both function and resilience to radiation are encouraged, as are proposals that include embedded sensors for environmental, state of health, and tamper monitoring. Keywords: Radiation Hardening, Security, Automation, Co-design, Single Event Effects, Trust and Assurance CMMC Level: Level 2 (Self)