Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation

Harold Hasely Ball

Anastasios P Goutzoulis

Michael Robert Lucas

A system and a method for providing secure and trusted application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) using three-dimensional (3D) integrated circuit (IC) integration. The method includes fabricating a plurality of sub-circuits and assembling an overall 3D ASIC device from the plurality of sub-circuits. Each sub-circuit includes a plurality of input-output (IO) pads, is fabricated with a orientation point that indicates a compass orientation of the sub-circuit, and is rotationally symmetrical. The assembling includes determining the designed sub-circuit integration order, determining the designed orientation for each sub-circuit, stacking each sub-circuit per the determined integration order, and orienting each sub-circuit per the determined orientation, and wherein function and operation of the overall 3D ASIC device is determinable only from the assembled 3D ASIC stack and not the sub-circuits. The fabricating may be performed at one or more un-trusted facilities and the assembling may be performed at a trusted facility remote from the fabricating facilities.

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Woodbine, MD, United States of America

Harold Hasely Ball