SBIR-STTR Award

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has issued a directive to protect, by application of anti-tamper (AT) coatings, Critical Program Information (CPI) from unintentional transfer on MDA acquisition and associated technical programs. The mission is to deter the reverse engineering and exploitation of our military’s critical technology. Engineered Coatings Inc., with Southwest Research Institute, and Analytical Solutions, Inc., propose to demonstrate an innovative near-atmosphere plasma processing method to deposit AT coatings onto semiconductor substrates. This unique deposition method is essentially container-less and can be used for substrate etching, functionalization, and deposition of coatings at relatively low temperatures, which will not degrade the device. Plasma cleaning of bond pads is already an accepted processing method. Incorporation of embedded sensors in the AT coating, to detect tampering attempts, will be developed. Anti-tamper coatings will be applied to silicon substrates for subsequent adhesion tests and removal investigations using reverse engineering techniques, including ion-etching, chemical, and mechanical methods. Embedded sensor networks will also be tested during the removal attempts. Near the end of the program, a selected electronic device will be used for coating demonstration, followed by electrical performance testing.

Keywords:
Near-Atmosphere Plasma Processing, Coating Materials, Reverse Engineering, Testing

The Missile Defense Agency desires the development of anti-tamper (AT) coatings to protect Critical Program Information (CPI) from unintentional transfer on acquisition programs. Engineered Coatings Inc. (ECI) has put together a highly-qualified, complementary team of materials and deposition process specialists (ECI, Southwest Research Institute, University of CA-Los Angeles), an electronic device evaluation specialist (Analytical Solutions, Inc.), and a semiconductor packaging company (VSLI) to demonstrate AT coating technology to prevent reverse engineering of critical hardware and preserve CPI. Leveraging the results of our successful Phase I program, in which thick diamondlike carbon (DLC) was demonstrated to be electrically resistive and resistant to hot-acid immersion, our team will continue the optimization of this unique DLC coating to improve its Ga-ion etch resistance. In addition, we will demonstrate a novel fluorinated-polymer-based coating deposited by an atmospheric plasma processing method, a unique out-of-vacuum deposition technique. Both of these coatings will be screened by a systematic series of removal tests, including diamond-particle abrasion, hot acid, and Ga-ion etching. In addition to AT coating optimzation, we will also demonstrate embedded sensor technology to assess the health condition of the AT coating and investigate the integration of an active-mitigation thin-film fuse technology within the AT coating.

Keywords:
Near-Atmosphere Plasma Processing, Plasma Ion Immersion Deposition, Diamondlike Carbon, Fluorinated Polymer, Coating Characterizatoin, Removal Testing