Department of Defense Seeks Revolutionary Technology To Detect Counterfeit Electronic Parts
The U.S. military is seeking a “tiny, cheap, foolproof” component to counter the pervasive problem of counterfeit electronic parts in the defense supply chain.
In the past two years alone, more than a million suspect parts have been associated with supply chain compromises, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), part of the Department of Defense.
The problem of used and counterfeit electronic components is widespread in the defense supply chain and present a critical risk, as “a malfunction of a single part could lead to system failures that can put warfighter lives and missions at risk,” DARPA says.
DARPA, through a new Supply Chain Hardware Integrity for Electronics Defense (SHIELD) program, aims to develop a tool to verify the trustworthiness of an electronic component without harming or interfering with the system.
The agency is seeking proposals for a small component, or dialet, to authenticate the provenance of electronic parts. The tool should include a full encryption engine and sensors to detect tampering, and should be able to attach to microchips.
The agency is seeking technology to provide 100 percent assurance of threats such as recycled components sold as new, sub-standard parts sold as high-quality components, and parts that are secretly repackaged for unauthorized applications.
“SHIELD demands a tool that costs less than a penny per unit, yet makes counterfeiting too expensive and technically difficult to do,” DARPA program manager Kerry Bernstein said. “The dielet will be designed to be robust in operation, yet fragile in the face of tampering. What SHIELD is seeking is a very advanced piece of hardware that will offer an on-demand authentication method never before available to the supply chain.”
While DARPA is funding the program, industry will adapt future implementation so the technology will scale to the defense supply chain, he said in a press release. “The Department of Defense puts severe demands on electronics, which is why a trusted supply chain is so important,” Bernstein said.
DARPA said the program “is seeking proposals that revolutionize electronic authentication with potential scalability and advanced technology not available today.” The agency is hosting a proposers’ workshop on March 14.
