The partnership will look to use fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) technologies as a foundational platform for secure electronics by leveraging and extending its inherent resistance to physical attacks.
At the heart of the initiative is a joint effort to experimentally validate and augment the security benefits of FD-SOI - from the substrate level up to circuit design and the project aims to deliver concrete data, practical demonstrations, and roadmap guidance to meet the surging cybersecurity demands in critical markets such as automotive, industrial IoT, and secure infrastructure.
Utilising GlobalFoundries’ advanced chip manufacturing capabilities, the partnership will address a growing need for trusted components in embedded and cyber-physical systems - systems that must deliver security services and withstand both software- and hardware-level attacks.
FD-SOI’s proven advantages against laser fault injection (LFI) attacks due to its thin-film architecture and channel isolation, means that the technology presents a compelling foundation for next-generation secure IC design.
The key goals of the partnership include: highlighting FD-SOI's existing strengths in cybersecurity; co-developing innovations across the substrate-design stack to boost physical robustness and meet security requirements in automotive and other embedded systems; and demonstrating empirical security data to reinforce FD-SOI’s credibility in certification contexts such as SESIP and Common Criteria.
“In an era marked by increasing attacks on connected systems and autonomous vehicles, the need for embedded hardware capable of resisting physical tampering has never been greater,” said CEA-Leti CTO Jean-René Lequepeys. “FD-SOI’s unique combination of performance, energy efficiency, and attack resistance offers an ideal answer for industries that demand both trust and efficiency. This project will leverage research results from the FAMES Pilot Line.”
According to those involved in the project FD-SOI’s critical benefits include:
- Physical attack resistance, enabled by electrical isolation between the channel and substrate.
- Power-performance optimisation, vital for battery-constrained applications like automotive ECUs and industrial sensors.
- Security design enablement, allowing tailored countermeasures such as fault detection and isolation of sensitive circuit domains.
While the initial phase focuses on leveraging existing FD-SOI capabilities, the project will also help to set the stage for long-term innovation. The envisioned next-generation cyber-substrate would expand upon FD-SOI’s strengths by incorporating:
- Enhanced protection against backside and invasive physical attacks.
- Embedded anti-tamper features and physical unclonable functions (PUFs) for hardware fingerprinting.
- Dynamic response mechanisms to detect and counter emerging threats.
- This future-oriented work will address both cyber and supply-chain vulnerabilities - making FD-SOI not only more secure, but also more indispensable.
Soitec’s Senior Executive Vice President in charge of Innovation and Chief Technology Officer Christophe Maleville said, "Our partnership with CEA-Leti reflects our strategic ambition to position FD-SOI as a reference platform for secure and energy-efficient electronics. By combining our substrate innovation capabilities with CEA-Leti’s research excellence, we aim to demonstrate the full potential of FD-SOI in addressing today’s most pressing security challenges. Together, we are paving the way for a new generation of trusted technologies that are essential to the future of connected systems."
