Global sourcing of semiconductors has made counterfeit chips a pervasive problem for the industry. Identification of counterfeit components has become a costly, but necessary step for every manufacturer
Counterfeit Detection
- Counterfeit electronics originating from China accounted for $1 billion to $10 billion in lost global sales in 2002
- For each $1 billion in counterfeit electronics in China, between $300 and $400 million consists of ICs. That’s 30% to
40%! - In 2002, US Customs Service intercepted only about $10 million in fake electronics. This means that they only
prevented about $3 million to $4 million in ICs. In other words, well over $300 million in ICs made it to US shores – and
therefore into your warehouse – conpletely undetected! - Counterfeit ICs cost your business time and money
- Distribution of countefeit ICs will lose customers’ faith about trust in your product
What you can do to protect yourself:
Efficient counterfeit detection is through (a) visual package inspection, (b) X-ray inspectionm, (c)XRF inspection (for ROSH
usually), (d) die inspection (after opening) and (e) electrical testing. And don’t forget to document it well: Quality of the
report on your effort to detect counterfeit is key for distributors.
External Visual inspection is the first step to identify different marking – answering if component was sanded and re-coatted
for instance? is this a refurbished device? how good is the marking?
X-ray inspection aims to see connections and die is as expected
XRF aims to identify chemical composition of the material used. XRF inspection in counterfeit usually
aims to identify ROHS compliance.
Electrical Testing would support to detect if chip is electrically functioning. More efficient tester solutions to validate
‘datasheet’ (through Teseda’s tester for instance) are however challenging to implement for distributor without strong expertise.
Questions remain on how to support adapted and efficient solutions for a good supply chain management.