Courtesy Photo | The Generalized Emulation of Microcircuits program was created in 1987 to provide a...... read more read more
Military-grade microcircuits that keep many weapon systems humming would be in short supply if it were not for the Generalized Emulation of Microcircuits obsolescence mitigation program within the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime.
Much like the scene in “Back to the Future III,” where Dr. Emmett Brown discovers that a tiny microchip is the reason his time machine isn’t working, microcircuits are a vital part of many military weapon systems. Without them, ships would not navigate, missiles would not fire and aircraft would not fly.
“GEM has been keeping our armed forces in the fight, one microcircuit at a time, for more than 35 years,” said Jeff Feick, a mechanical engineer and manager of the two-pronged program which falls under the Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages Office in the Engineering and Technical Support Directorate at DLA Land and Maritime.
GEM and Advanced Microcircuit Emulation provide a long-term solution to replace obsolete military-grade microcircuits with high-reliability, standardized, modern integrated circuits with the same form, fit, function and interface as the original, Feick said.
Sidebar: What are microcircuits?
Defense Acquisition University defines a microcircuit as a miniaturized electronic circuit composed of transistors, resistors and capacitors constructed on a single semiconductor wafer, in which the components are interconnected to perform a given function. A wafer is a thin slice of semiconductor material, typically silicon, that serves as the base for microcircuits. Wafers are created by slicing a single crystal of raw silicon into thin portions. Wafers are characterized by their diameter, thickness and surface properties. The microcircuits emulated and manufactured by GEM, also known as integrated circuits, can contain millions of components. ICs are the base of most modern electronic devices, from smartphones and laptops to sophisticated military fighter jets and weapon systems featuring automated detection and firing mechanisms. The microcircuits manufactured by GEM are emulated using a reverse engineering process. Emulation refers to the process of imitating or replicating the functionality of one system using another system.
The more research focused AME arm of the program develops emulation capability for more complex microcircuits as they become commercially obsolete, Feick added. Once a new technological capability is tested by AME, it is handed over to GEM for implementation and production.
GEM/AME deliver a permanent solution to microcircuit obsolescence that can be utilized during any phase of the weapon system’s lifecycle, effectively extending the use life for many critical platforms like the AEGIS Weapon System, Phalanx Close-In Weapon System, MK 48 Heavyweight Torpedo, Patriot Long-Range Air Defense System and the F-15 Eagle, Feick explained.
The GEM/AME website states there are more than 560 weapon systems supported by the program, with more than 175,000 parts supplied to date, and about 30,000 different individual microcircuit devices manufactured by the program’s industry partner, SRI International.
Feick said a benefit of the production part of the program is its inherent interoperability, noting that one GEM microcircuit can solve obsolescence on many different systems.
For example, the GEM34301QPA dual driver, has solved obsolescence on about 30 different weapon systems to include the F-22 Raptor, F-15 Eagle, F/A 18 Hornet, C-17 Globemaster III, the Trident Missile and the Bradley M2A2.
Feick said one of the longest running emulations has been in support of the AEGIS, an integrated command-and-control weapon system found on almost every Navy vessel in the surface fleet.
“We [GEM/AME] have been integral to the sustainment of that system for several decades,” Feick noted.
AEGIS, originally fielded in the 1970s, integrates a broad range of sensors and weapons to provide simultaneous integrated air and missile defense.
According to the Naval Sea Systems Command, the heart of the system is the AN/SPY, an advanced, automatic detect and track, multi-function phased-array radar which can perform search, track and missile guidance functions simultaneously, with a track capacity of more than 100 targets. Since it was fielded, it has undergone numerous upgrades including adding a vertical launching system, allowing greater missile selection and firepower, improved radar and computer processing capacity.
The system is not going anywhere as its lifespan has been extended well into the 21st Century, so the continued emulation and manufacture of specialized GEM parts will be key to ensuring naval readiness moving forward, Feick explained.
“We have provided 26,310 emulated microcircuits directly to the military and original equipment manufacturers to keep the repair and production lines for the AEGIS system running over the past several years, ensuring uninterrupted integrated deterrence wherever the system is deployed globally,” Feick said.
Critical to the program’s success is the specialized small batch manufacturing capability provided by SRI International at its wafer fabrication foundry in Princeton, New Jersey.
Feick said the fab, housed in the same building where the Radio Corporation of America developed the first television sets, maintains semiconductor processing for a diverse array of technologies and provides on-demand manufacturing of microcircuits for GEM and the development of newer technologies for AME.
“The program’s focus is on emulating 1970s to mid-1990s military-grade microcircuit technologies to fill multiple obsolescence gaps,” he said. “We not only help legacy systems last longer, but also mitigate obsolescence on new systems in the early design and production phases before it becomes a problem.”
Feick explained that longer lifecycles of a variety of weapon systems result in electronics obsolescence due to short initial production runs, declining demand from the commercial sector for similar devices, and the rapid advancement of technology making a new device obsolete the second it comes off the assembly line.
“All you need to do is to read the news to know military systems are being used well past their original lifecycles, exacerbating the electronics obsolescence problem, as one of the main failure points is often in a system’s electronics,” Feick said.
The nature of these circuits being military-grade, meaning they were made to a much higher standard than the commercial marketplace, makes them a unique commodity and inherently over time, scarce as the services continue to modernize, Feick said.
“They [the Defense Department] are not coming out with a lot of new weapon systems,” he said. “They are refurbishing the older ones and upgrading existing systems to meet new mission requirements.”
According to a recent GEM/AME briefing from the DLA Supply Chain Alliance Conference and Exhibition in April of this year, microcircuit obsolescence has significantly driven up maintenance costs within the Department for several years as many devices manufactured in the 1960s-1990s are no longer in production.
“This is where we come in,” Feick said noting that GEM/AME solution was created to address this issue by ensuring a continuous supply of these critical components, thereby enhancing operational readiness.
GEM program history
GEM was created in 1987 by Department leaders who recognized the need for a sustainable solution to mitigate the growing obsolete military-grade microcircuit problem. As technological advancements rapidly unfolded in the commercial marketplace, these leaders from every branch of the military services foresaw the Department’s dominance in the commercial microelectronics market would inevitably diminish over time.
They were following the tenets of Moore’s Law, coined by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, to describe the observation of the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubling roughly every two years, Feick said.
At the time of the program’s creation, the Department had a 60% share of that market.
“Today, that number is down to less than 2%,” he said.
DLA Land and Maritime was chosen to manage the program from its inception because it serves as a repository of technical data for most military weapon systems.
Partnering with Sarnoff (now SRI International), for the first decade, GEM was a research and development type project, and it started out by producing parts mostly for the F-15, Feick said.
Since then, the program grew to where it is today as more military program executive offices became aware that a more cost-effective solution was available over weapon system redesign, Feick noted.
“More than 35 years later, the platform that put GEM on the map still supports the F-15 today,” Feick added.
AME was established soon after GEM became a stand-alone production program in 1997 to provide a continuous technological innovation capability, Feick said.
How GEM/AME works
The two-pronged program and what it offers come into play when alternative sources of manufacturing cannot be found anywhere else. The GEM/AME solution saves millions of dollars per year, averting production and repair line shutdowns for original equipment manufacturers and the services.
Feick explained when a request comes into the DLA Land and Maritime GEM/AME program office based at Defense Supply Center Columbus, every effort is made to find any after-market manufacturer in the marketplace still making that part. If no manufacturer is found, the device in question becomes a candidate for the program.
“Customers come to us when the original chip has failed, and no replacement can be found due to obsolescence,” Feick said. “If a particular device is not made anymore and no other source can be found, the military customer will ultimately turn to us for an enduring solution.”
SRI International explains on the GEM/AME website that the emulation process begins with reverse engineering the original device by reviewing any existing documentation, electrically probing the original circuit, and physically inspecting the original part through careful delayering and high-resolution imaging. This method establishes support for production, redesign, and sustainment requirements throughout the life of the system.
The new devices are then created on 1970s-1990s base wafers that the program has in stock.
“When we get an order, and we have a specific design, we pick one of those blank wafers, whichever type works the best for what we are designing. Then we add layers of metal where we connect the different electrical features, with the result being a fully functional microcircuit that provides a specific functionality within a complex system,” Feick explained.
“One emulation can take up to 48 weeks to complete,” he added.
GEM parts meet 100% of the performance, quality and mechanical requirements specified in the original part specification, Feick said.
If the GEM/AME program didn’t exist, systems would have to be redesigned to operate on different technologies, costing about $1 million per circuit card, Feick said.
“We don’t want to do that too often, especially since if they redesign something that is being made today, it’s not going to be made next year because turnover or obsolescence in the microcircuit industry is completely out of hand as far as trying to maintain an existing system,” he said.
Feick noted once a microcircuit device is manufactured, the program provides the warfighter with a cost-effective, permanent, long-term solution to microelectronics obsolescence.
“Once we have emulated a device to match its original specifications, we hold that intellectual property in perpetuity so we may be able to manufacture it as long as the end user needs it,” Feick said. “And since we specialize in small batches, we can make as many as 50 items at once or as little as one device at a time.”
While GEM/AME is known for emulating devices on legacy systems, effectively extending their lifecycles, the program emulates parts for new systems as well.
“In the realm of newer parts, there is a microcircuit card that is embedded in the ejection seat of the F-22 that is something we supply,” Feick said.
Emulating and supplying parts for both legacy and newer systems effectively breaks the microelectronics obsolescence cycle, enhancing military readiness across the board, Feick added.
| Date Taken: | 12.23.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 12.23.2024 14:40 |
| Story ID: | 488272 |
| Location: | COLUMBUS, OHIO, US |
| Web Views: | 79 |
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