Open Competition 3 - Information Technology

eManufacturing Security Framework to Improve Semiconductor Manufacturing Productivity

Sponsor: Advanced Micro Devices

• Project Performance Period: 11/1/2001 - 10/31/2005
• Total project (est.): $10,096,144.00
• Requested ATP funds: $5,047,062.00

Semiconductor factory effectiveness (or net productivity of capital) rarely exceeds 50 percent, a level that must be boosted substantially to maintain the trend of significant improvements in integrated circuit (chip) performance per unit price. Higher productivity could be achieved if there were a secure platform for communications between chip makers and equipment suppliers, enabling them to reveal to each other how their hardware and tools operate while also protecting proprietary data. To provide such a platform for sharing over the Internet, a three-year joint venture led by the Semiconductor Industry Suppliers Association plans to develop, prototype, and validate a novel security framework for electronic collaboration. Two types of collaboration are envisioned: equipment suppliers will collect real-time data from distant fabs to diagnose problems, dispatch replacement parts, and offer engineering assistance; and advanced software will autonomously and continuously share data and measure and improve factory effectiveness. Security features will enable fabs to classify and manage distribution of data, and suppliers to cloak proprietary algorithms and tool parameters. A key innovation will be the binding of security protocols to data content rather than data transmission or storage, an approach that provides flexibility and opens closed architectures to collaboration while still protecting them. A security reference model will be developed to allow firms to create security policies describing conditions under which data can be accessed, and a flexible firewall will be designed to protect accessible devices and enforce security policies. Technical challenges will include balancing framework flexibility against complexity and security, and speed against scalability. ATP support is needed because the framework must be a vendor-neutral, open standard to be widely adopted, and company participants cannot obtain sufficient returns to attract private investment. The participants are Advanced Micro Devices (Sunnyvale, Calif.), domainLogix (Austin, Texas), ILS Technology (Charlotte, N.C.), and Oceana Sensor Technologies (Virginia Beach, Va.). Staff at the University of Florida (Gainesville, Fla.) and University of Texas (Austin,Texas will serve as consultants. If successfully developed and deployed, the new technology is expected to save U.S. semiconductor manufacturers billions of dollars annually, because every 1 percent improvement in factory effectiveness translates to about $1 billion in increased production at virtually no cost. The framework also would be extensible to other manufacturing industries, such as pharmaceuticals, aerospace, and automobiles, and applicable to law enforcement and military needs.

For project information:

Jonathan Davis, (408) 943-6937
jdavis@semi.org

Active Project Participants

• ILS Technology, LLC (Boca Raton, FL)
  [Original, Active Member]
  
• Oceana Sensor Technologies (Virginia Beach, VA)
  [Original, Active Member]
  

ATP Project Manager

Jack Boudreaux, (301) 975-3560
jack.boudreaux@nist.gov