Purdue University’s Peter Bermel, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, will lead a team of researchers from Purdue, Indiana University, and the University of Notre Dame to develop new, ultra-reliable and trusted microelectronics. The project is being funded by a $2.3 million grant from the Indiana Innovation Institute (IN3).

The sophisticated spy-vs.-spy of cyber-security and cyber-attacks has reached the point where even the foundational hardware and materials of electronic devices needs to be re-thought.

Nowhere is this need for trusted microelectronics more evident — and more crucial — than for use in military and aerospace devices.

To help launch this next-level generation of trusted microelectronics, the Indiana Innovation Institute (IN3) has awarded Purdue a $2.3 million contract to help develop the ASSURE program (Achieving Scientifically Secured User Reassurance in Electronics). Facilitated and managed by IN3, Purdue will collaborate with Indiana University, the University of Notre Dame and the southern Indiana-based Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane) on the research and development of new materials, new electronic hardware architectures and novel software approaches.

The ASSURE program is being led by Peter Bermel, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue.

The ASSURE teams will examine known hardware capability gaps in integrated circuits, memory and interconnects; design; materials, fabrication and indicators of imminent failure.

The specific goals of ASSURE are:

• Address vulnerabilities in military electronics.
• Create a national research center of excellence in trusted and reliable military electronics.
• Establish partnerships that will drive research, workforce training, and economic development in Indiana.

“There are three aspects of computation: hardware, software and the user. To fully secure systems, you have to be cognizant of all three,” Bermel said. “It’s very common to have security discussions around the software and the user, but if we don’t have a better strategy for securing cyber-systems with the hardware, there will always be limits to what can be achieved.”

The initial research projects in the program will include:

• Creating secure circuits to prevent IP piracy using novel materials.
  Purdue investigators Joerg Appenzeller, Purdue’s Barry M. and Patricia L. Epstein Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, scientific director of nanoelectronics, Birck Nanotechnology Center; Zhihong Chen, professor of electrical and computer engineering; University of Notre Dame investigator X. Sharon Hu, professor of computer science and engineering.
• Quantifying risk and developing micro-bump reliability in logic and memory components.
  Purdue investigators Carol Handwerker, Purdue’s Reinhardt Schuhmann Jr. Professor of Materials Engineering; Ganesh Subbarayan, professor of mechanical engineering; and John Blendell, professor of materials engineering.
• Using advanced imaging to detect potential failures and counterfeit devices.
  Purdue investigators: Bermel; Ali Shakouri, Purdue’s Mary Jo and Robert L. Kirk Director of Birck Nanotechnology Center, professor of electrical and computer engineering; and Peide “Peter” Ye, Purdue’s Richard J. and Mary Jo Schwartz Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
• Using models of extreme conditions for devices, and simulations of design improvements.
  Purdue investigators Alejandro Strachan, professor of materials engineering; and Gerhard Klimeck, professor of electrical and computer engineering, director of the Network for Computational Nanotechnology, and the Reilly Director of the Center for Predictive Materials and Devices.
• Developing non-destructive tools to measure aging.
  Purdue investigators: Bermel and Ashraful Alam, Purdue’s Jai N. Gupta Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
• Instruct students on how to design “system-on-a-chip” devices.
  Purdue investigator: Mark C. Johnson, director of Instructional Laboratories, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
• Using computer vision and machine learning to detect defective and counterfeit devices.
  Indiana University investigator David Crandall, associate professor, School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering.
• Real-time monitoring to detect malicious or counterfeit hardware components.
  Indiana University investigator Martin Swany, associate chair of Intelligent Systems Engineering.
• Plasmonic nano-materials for physically unclonable, anti-counterfeit nano-fingerprints.
  Indiana University investigator Sara Skrabalak, IU’s James H. Rudy Professor of Chemistry.

According to IN3, trusted microelectronics, such as those being developed by ASSURE, have applications in virtually all military products and drive a $189 billion commercial industry.

General Gene Renuart USAF (Ret.), who is also the chairman and CEO of the Indiana Innovation Institute (IN3), said IN3’s new approach to applied research will help drive solutions to an urgent need in both the U.S. Navy and the private sector.

“Our vast resources and partnerships in government, industry and academia allow us to work on projects, like trusted microelectronics, that push the pace of innovation to achieve faster solutions that impact people’s lives,” he said. “In addition, these types of projects provide opportunities for regional economic development that offer great promise to benefit the I-69 corridor and Indiana as a whole.”

The project will be based in Purdue’s interdisciplinary research facility, Discovery Park.

The Indiana Innovation Institute (IN3), formerly the Applied Research Institute, was established in 2015 with the support of a $16.2 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.

Source: Purdue News Room