Heterogeneous-Integration Portfolio Adviser — Mission Electronics

The mandate

The board’s standing question is where heterogeneous integration creates durable mission advantage and where it introduces unmanageable dependence on specialised substrates, assembly flows, design IP and test access. Business cases combine commercial chiplets, trusted die and custom interfaces without pricing known-good-die loss, secure custody or fifteen-year sustainment. Directors need a portfolio logic that protects architecture optionality while meeting programme performance and provenance expectations.

The adviser contributes four days monthly, attends quarterly Washington board sessions and joins the scheduled Phoenix, Albany and Brussels reviews. Each month, one candidate platform is examined from mission need through partition, process node, interface, package, test and sustainment. Written counsel is available within three working days before a capital or bid gate, without turning the adviser into programme design authority.

The appointment lasts ten months and may renew once for two months if a government programme decision or packaging demonstration remains unresolved. Renewal requires a committee minute identifying the residual board question, fixed cadence and refreshed conflicts. It cannot become continuing capture support, supplier selection or technical programme management after the portfolio strategy receives accountable owners.

The adviser has no line authority and carries no executive responsibility for architecture, bids, supplier awards, security accreditation or capital. Programme executives and the board retain those decisions. The adviser may challenge partition assumptions, frame option value and recommend evidence gates, but cannot approve a package, designate a trusted source, commit government representations or negotiate commercial terms.

Conflicts include foundries, OSATs, substrate and interposer providers, chiplet and IP vendors, design houses, government laboratories, mission primes and investment interests. Employment, board service, equity, patents, retainers and paid proposal work must be disclosed. A new engagement with a bidder or proposed integration partner requires committee review and may require recusal from the affected platform.

Why the board wants this voice

Heterogeneous integration can preserve differentiated functions on appropriate nodes, but packaging concentration can replace one silicon dependency with several less visible ones. Mission programmes also value provenance, sustainment and test access differently from short-lifecycle commercial products. Independent counsel helps directors fund architectures whose supply and lifecycle risks are understood before bids and capital narrow the available choices.

What you will own

• Challenge platform partition across mission performance, process suitability, reuse, interface maturity, verification and sustainment requirements.
• Expose dependencies in known-good die, interposers, substrates, assembly equipment, thermal solutions, test and secure custody.
• Compare monolithic, 2.5D, 3D and modular options through yield, non-recurring cost, schedule and redesign consequences.
• Test trusted-supply claims across die identity, transport, assembly, provisioning, test access and counterfeit or substitution evidence.
• Frame capital and partnership stages with technical demonstrations, supply rights, abandonment value and programme decision dates.
• Examine long-term obsolescence, requalification, interface control, spares and repair when component lifecycles diverge.
• Leave the board a portfolio map, concentration exposures, platform gates, funding sequence and monitored ecosystem triggers.

Candidate qualifications

• Advised senior mission-electronics or secure-microelectronics portfolios involving advanced packaging and multiple technology partners.
• Can evidence a heterogeneous architecture changed after known-good-die, test, custody or sustainment was fully costed.
• Understands chiplet partition, interposers, 3D integration, package yield, thermal limits and mission assurance constraints.
• Has assessed trusted supply without treating domestic location alone as sufficient provenance or technical control.
• Translated architecture uncertainty into staged capital and bid decisions for boards and government-facing executives.
• Maintained independence amid primes, foundries, OSATs, research programmes, patents and capture-team interests.

Non-negotiables

• Will attend all Washington, Phoenix, Albany and Brussels sessions in the advisory cadence.
• Holds no undisclosed equity, patent or paid capture role involving a proposed portfolio supplier.
• Accepts no authority to choose architectures, award suppliers, certify trust or make government representations.
• Brings direct mission-hardware integration judgment beyond generic defence market or semiconductor strategy.

1. 49 words maximum. Which hidden packaging dependency most changed a mission-electronics architecture or bid decision?
2. 49 words maximum. How would you value modularity when chiplet qualification and sustainment are expensive?
3. 49 words maximum. Which prime, foundry, OSAT or government role could require your recusal?