PCBs and Chiplets: State-of-the-art and Commercial Aspects of Hardware Assurance

Franck Courbon [Ethicronics]

Abstract: 

The global electronics industry faces annual losses exceeding $100 billion due to counterfeit and compromised components, with ~10% of electronic failures in critical sectors such as aerospace, defense, and telecoms linked to security vulnerabilities.

As chiplet-based architectures and high-density PCBs become more prevalent, the risks of hardware tampering, reverse engineering, and supply chain infiltration grow.

Traditional verification methods—optical inspection, X-ray imaging, and destructive analysis— present scalability, cost, and effectiveness challenges. Optical inspection is limited to surface-level defects, X-ray imaging requires costly specialized equipment, and destructive analysis is impractical for large-scale supply chain assurance.

This talk will cover:

- The state of the art in PCB and chiplet security validation and its actors

- Practical examples of optical, xray and destructive sample preparation, imaging and post- processing with current pros and cons

- The economic impact of compromised electronics and regulatory drivers across segments for enhanced security.

- The commercial viability of next-generation assurance solutions and their adoption across industries.

By addressing both technical challenges and market dynamics, we will showcase how innovative assurance techniques can mitigate risks, improve cost efficiency, and ensure trust and integrity in modern electronics supply chains.

Biography: 

Franck Courbon, MRes., MPhil., Meng., PhD. (Electrical Engineering/Cyber) has led corporate (Gemaltlo, now Thales-DIS 3.5y), academic (University of Cambridge 7y) and startup (Founder & CEO Ethironics 2.5y) experiences. Ethironics is a £930k funded central Cambridge start-up developing scalable software for hardware problems- starting with hardware assurance.