An IP-Agnostic Foundational Cell Array Offering Supply Chain Security

Growing IC manufacturing complexity and reliance on third-party fabrication create supply chain fragility, contributing to chip shortages and IP security risks. General-purpose ICs can mitigate manufacturing security risks but rely on software-based configurations, which is not optimal for high-consequence applications. Our work proposes a novel IP-agnostic Foundational Cell Array (FC-Array) platform to overcome these challenges. Built on verified standard cells and industry-standard EDA tools, this platform preserves many advantages of an ASIC. By incorporating 3D split manufacturing, we provide semantically secure IP protection and a base wafer that can be stockpiled. Our tests demonstrate both power-efficient (100 MHz) and high-performance (1 GHz) options. In a post-place-and-route simulated 28nm design, our FC-Array shows a worst-case 1.85x increase in power consumption and a 2.61x increase in area compared to standard cell ASICs for equivalent timing performance.