Panel 7: Microelectronics Supply Chain Security: What Can Save Us?

With the globalization of microelectronics manufacturing, the security of the IC supply chain has manifested itself as a major consideration of modern hardware systems. As an example, large SoCs often integrate third party intellectual property or 3PIPs, which may be procured from untrusted entities that can potentially compromise the security of the entire system. Over the past two decades, researchers have unearthed several vulnerabilities due to such security risks, including Hardware Trojan insertion, IC counterfeiting, overproduction, and reverse engineering. These vulnerabilities could cause billions of dollars in economic loss, as well as result in critical threats to national security. To address these concerns, researchers in academia, government, and industry have proposed several countermeasures at various levels, from RTL to layout to devices, including logic obfuscation, IC camouflaging, and IC watermarking. This panel will discuss these challenges and potential solutions and forecast new frontiers to explore by the hardware security community.