Trusted Access Program Office

Trusted Supplier Program

DMEA is the program manager for the DoD Trusted Foundry program. The program provides a cost-effective means to assure the integrity and confidentiality of integrated circuits during design and manufacturing while providing the US Government with access to advanced microelectronics technologies for both Trusted and non-sensitive applications.

Trusted - Is the confidence in one's ability to secure national security systems by assessing the integrity of the people and processes used to design, generate, manufacture and distribute national security critical components (i.e. microelectronics).

Within this context, "trusted sources" will:

  • Provide an assured "Chain of Custody" for both classified and unclassified ICs
  • Ensure that there will not be any reasonable threats related to disruption in supply
  • Prevent intentional or unintentional modification or tampering of the ICs
  • Protect the ICs from unauthorized attempts at reverse engineering, exposure of functionality or evaluation of their possible vulnerabilities

DoD Instruction 5200.44, Protection of Mission Critical Functions to Achieve Trusted Systems and Networks (TSN) requires that;

"In applicable systems, integrated circuit-related products and services shall be procured from a trusted supplier accredited by the Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA) when they are custom-designed, custom-manufactured, or tailored for a specific DoD military end use (generally referred to as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs))."

DMEA accredits suppliers in the areas of integrated circuit design, aggregation, broker, mask manufacturing, foundry, post processing, packaging/assembly and test services. These services cover a broad range of technologies and is intended to support both new and legacy applications, both classified and unclassified. Additionally, the use of the Trusted Suppliers' Trusted Flow is adequate to protect Critical Program Information as required by DODI 5200.39, Critical Program Information (CPI) Protection Within the Department of Defense.

A key part of the DoD Trusted Foundry program is that it uniquely provides the US Government with guaranteed access to advanced Trusted microelectronics services for the typically low volume needs of the US Government. The Trusted Access Program Office (TAPO) facilitates and administers the contracts and agreements with industry to provide US Government users with:

  • Leading edge foundry services including multi-project wafer runs, dedicated prototypes, and production in both high- and low-volume models
  • A library of standard IP blocks
  • Limited packaging and test services

For a current list of DMEA-accredited suppliers, download the following PDF file:
List of Accredited Suppliers

Note: This page is intended for informational purposes only. This information is not intended to endorse or appear to endorse any non-Federal entity, but rather to publish results of an examination of companies and programs against established accreditation criteria.

For more information about the Trusted Foundry program or the accreditation of Trusted Suppliers, send an email to trustedic@dmea.osd.mil.

Trusted Supplier Accreditation Process Chart