High Performance Microchip Supply - Under Secretary of Defense ...

RECOMMENDATIONS ____________________________________________________________
advanced technology degrees in U.S. universities must be
encouraged to remain in this country to help move the technology
base forward. Technology is portable in the minds of these students,
and their departure is our loss and others’ gain.
The Department of Defense needs to solicit the support and
cooperation of other government organizations to maintain the
supply of U.S.-built trusted semiconductors. The USTR must
monitor foreign countries with regard to practices that distort trade
and investment patterns and jeopardize U.S. intellectual property
issues. The NSF must be funded to boost university research in
nanoelectronics and beyond.
The United States is still the leader in technology, and a sufficient
supply of many trusted microelectronic components is available. The
trends of the last few years, however, indicate that this will not
continue in the near term unless direct action is taken in the
immediate future.
RECOMMENDATION 3 – UNDERSTAND THE TRUSTED
MICROELECTRONICS NEED – ENUMERATION
The DUSD(IP) is leading a DOD effort to collect component
acquisition data from 23 DOD prime end item contractors. 38 In this
effort, the under secretary has asked the firms to identify all ASICs
included in their prime end items. Based upon preliminary and as
yet incomplete feedback from this survey, DOD products entering or
in production are not generally using the most advanced IC
technology. Feature sizes (an indicator of process maturity) for
custom ASICs in systems such as the F-22, V-22, C-17, C-130J, B-1,
Apache, SH-60 and M-1 tank are generally no smaller than 0.9
microns – a 1980s-era technology. While the incompleteness of those
data must be underscored, the smallest feature size found in this
survey to date was 0.2 microns (early 1990s). This finding is not
unexpected; disparity in product development cycle-times means
that, to assure trusted sources for its in-production and in-fleet
38. Institute for Defense Analyses study of DOD Integrated Circuit Demand (in progress).
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