A 3D Split Manufacturing Approach to Trustworthy System Development

Abstract

Securing the supply chain of integrated circuits is of the utmost importance to computer security. In addition to counterfeit microelectronics, the theft or malicious modification of designs in the foundry can result in catastrophic damage to critical systems and large projects. In this Technical Report, we describe a 3D architecture that splits a design into two separate tiers: one tier that contains critical security functions is manufactured in a trusted foundry; another tier is manufactured in an unsecured foundry. We argue that a split manufacturing approach to hardware trust based on 3D integration is viable and provides several advantages over other approaches.