Lockheed Martin's chip house, building trusted silicon that never leaves American soil.
ForwardEdge ASIC - the design center of excellence at 2340 Energy Park Drive, Saint Paul, where a 30-year engineering team turns requirements into trusted silicon.
Most semiconductor companies pick a side. They are either fast-moving startups burning venture money to chase a market, or they are the entrenched giants with the scale to survive a decade-long product cycle. ForwardEdge ASIC was built to be both at once - a commercially focused, wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin that operates with the agility of a garage team and the stability of a Fortune 100 parent.
Headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota, ForwardEdge designs application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), licenses silicon intellectual property, and delivers turnkey microelectronics products. The distinguishing claim runs through everything it does: the work is 100% domestically traceable, from design through high-volume manufacturing. In an industry where most advanced chips pass through foreign-owned foundries and overseas logistics, that traceability is the product as much as the silicon itself.
The company was founded in 2023 and led into the market by chief executive Frank Ferrante, with co-founder Paul Voit driving its memory division and technology strategy. The engineering core is unusual: a team that has worked together for more than 30 years, credited with over 300 patents. That continuity, rare in a business that churns talent every couple of years, is the quiet foundation for a headline metric - an 85% first-pass silicon success rate, meaning the vast majority of designs work correctly on the first fabrication run rather than requiring expensive respins.
“Enhance America's domestic FPGA/ASIC capabilities for commercial, defense, and security customers, by delivering relevant, innovative and affordable microelectronics solutions.”
That mission became considerably more concrete in early 2026, when ForwardEdge was approved as a Trusted Integrated Circuit vendor by the Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA). The accreditation is not a marketing badge. It certifies that a company's processes meet the government's rigorous chain-of-custody requirements - the guarantee that a chip destined for a sensitive national-security system contains no hidden kill switches, no backdoors, and no unauthorized hardware modifications. For programs where failure is not an option, the Trusted IC stamp is a precondition to even bid.
ForwardEdge sells expertise, not just chips. Customers can engage at whatever depth they need - from a single design service to a fully turnkey product.
Full-cycle analog and digital IC design from requirements through high-volume manufacturing, across process nodes from 180nm down to 5nm, with a fully automated RTL-to-GDSII flow.
SerDes at 25G NRZ and 56/112G PAM4, memory controllers (DDRx, LPDDRx, GDDRx, ONFI), PCIe Gen 3-6, NVMe, and a UCIe 2.0 controller and PHY for multi-die chiplet designs.
AES-256 and SHA2/SHA3 cryptography, Physical Unclonable Functions, a RISC-V security processor with secure boot, and countermeasures against side-channel and tamper attacks.
Finished devices such as the SPD5 DDR5 memory hub and TS5 temperature sensor, delivered through a domestic gov-cloud plus on-premise data-center environment.
The modern chip supply chain is global by default. For defense, aerospace, and critical infrastructure, that global default is a liability. ForwardEdge's differentiators map directly onto that anxiety.
Development and supply chain are 100% U.S.-based, mitigating the risks tied to foreign foundries and overseas logistics - and aligning with the goals of the CHIPS and Science Act.
Security primitives are part of the architecture, not a patch. Side-channel resistance, secure boot, and tamper countermeasures are specified from the start.
One team carries a design from concept to high-volume manufacturing, so there are fewer handoffs, fewer surprises, and a clearer line of accountability.
A rough read on the markets the company builds for, based on its stated focus areas.
Approximate emphasis by market, inferred from ForwardEdge's stated focus areas - not published revenue figures.
“This collaboration with Honeywell will provide ForwardEdge ASIC a path to deliver innovative IP and ASIC design solutions for space and Defense Industrial Base applications.”
A snapshot of what customers can license or buy today, alongside the design services that anchor the business.
A smart serial-presence-detect hub for DDR5 memory modules with integrated temperature sensing, secure authentication, and data protection.
A temperature-monitoring device for DDR5 memory systems, part of the company's memory-focused product line.
Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express IP for the multi-die architectures reshaping high-performance computing.
Cryptographic accelerators, a PUF, and a RISC-V security processor with secure boot for tamper-resistant designs.
End-to-end analog and digital design services with an 85% first-pass silicon success rate.
A board-level design solution aimed at embedded and defense computing form factors.
ForwardEdge earns through custom design services (engineering and NRE engagements), licensing of silicon IP such as SerDes, memory controllers, UCIe and security blocks, and turnkey product delivery through manufacturing. As a wholly owned Lockheed Martin subsidiary, it pairs commercial focus with defense-grade credibility.
Defense and aerospace primes, space and satellite programs, cybersecurity and digital-infrastructure firms, and high-volume commercial electronics makers. The company is scaling from roughly 70 employees toward 100+ with its Saint Paul expansion.
2025 strategic collaboration on radiation-hardened microelectronics for satellites, backed by Honeywell's DMEA Category 1A Trusted Foundry.
Parent company; provides Fortune 100 stability, scale, and defense-industry reach.
Foundry and ecosystem partners supporting domestic fabrication across advanced process nodes.
Lockheed Martin launches a commercially focused ASIC/FPGA design house led by veteran semiconductor engineers.
A $60M project to build a Minnesota design center of excellence, expected to create 100+ jobs.
SerDes, memory controllers, PCIe/NVMe, UCIe 2.0 and secure-architecture IP round out a full turnkey offering.
A partnership targets radiation-hardened microelectronics for satellites and space systems.
A secure DDR5 SPD EEPROM hub with authentication and temperature sensing ships to market.
Accreditation as a Trusted Integrated Circuit vendor cements ForwardEdge as a secure onshore source for national-security chips.
It designs custom ASICs and FPGAs, licenses silicon IP, and delivers turnkey microelectronics products - all 100% domestically traceable - for defense, aerospace, space, cybersecurity and commercial customers.
Yes. It is a commercially focused, wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, pairing startup agility with Fortune 100 stability.
Its design center of excellence is in Saint Paul, Minnesota, at 2340 Energy Park Drive.
It is a Defense Microelectronics Activity accreditation confirming a secure, domestic chain of custody. It certifies that ForwardEdge's chips are free of kill switches or backdoors, qualifying the company for sensitive national-security work.
Named collaborators include Honeywell for space microelectronics, plus foundry and ecosystem partners such as GlobalFoundries, Intel and Lynx Software Technologies, alongside parent company Lockheed Martin.
Official channels and the reporting behind this profile.
Profile compiled from public sources including ForwardEdge ASIC's website and newsroom, LinkedIn, Honeywell and aerospace trade press, and Minnesota state economic-development announcements. Figures such as market emphasis are approximate.