Award

In order to address these urgent DOD needs, ChromoLogic LLC (CLL) has developed (TRL 6) a Rapid, portable, surface texture based component classifier (RAPSTEC) system that will rely on a machine learning based algorithm to instantly identify a) if a microelectronic component has been re-marked, which is the most common form of microelectronic counterfeiting and/or b) if the component is a clone that was not produced by the original component manufacturer (OCM) and c) create a virtual tag (vTag®) for each component extracted from a PCB so that it can be accurately be re-populated. RAPSTEC leverages the fact that all components, at the micrometer scale, have unique and random surface texture that is intrinsic, immutable, unforgeable and covert. The surface texture of a component, while completely random and unique to the part itself, also represents the manufacturing process (such as the injection mold or polishing technique) that was used to produce the part. These features, because they are at a micrometer scale, cannot be replicated. We have exploited this fundamental fact of nature and developed a range of commercial products based on our patented (Characterization of a Physical Object based on its Surface Roughness, US 10,341,555) hardware platform that uses surface texture to a) uniquely fingerprint a component and/or b) determine if a components surface has been modified. These products are available through our wholly owned subsidiary, Covisus Inc. (www.covisus.com).