Counterfeit!

Brad Thompson, Contributing Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 2/1/2005

Counterfeits inspired this column: crud-drooling electrolytic capacitors on a PC's motherboard, a flood of e-mails offering "replica" Rolex watches, and a warning about counterfeit integrated circuits on Maxim's home page. Flashy wristwatches don't impress me, and from 20 paces I defy anyone to distinguish a Rolex from a Timex. But leaky capacitors and phony ICs hit close to home. In the former case, a Chinese capacitor manufacturer stole another manufacturer's electrolyte formula. Unfortunately, an error in the formula caused capacitors to outgas, leak, fail, and occasionally explode after a few weeks or months in the field. Subsequent product recalls caused financial losses for the capacitors' end users.

Some counterfeits consist of relabeled defective semiconductors. In this instance, purchasers of the bogus parts discover massive failures at final test. On a higher level, reclaimed and reworked parts can creep into the supply chain. During product shortages in the 1980s, desperate end users purchased ICs salvaged from scrapped circuit boards. Tested and retinned parts may be perfectly serviceable, but how many soldering cycles does it take to compromise reliability?

Read other articles from this issue: Table of contents, February 2005 Economies of scale, Cover story Test-system development:    Do everything first Vision meets motion Simulate voice networks

"Product overruns" reside at the top of the counterfeit heap. For example, an offshore subcontractor completes an authorized product run of n wafers. Unknown to the wafer customer, the subcontractor produces n+m wafers and sells the extras to a packaging contractor. Once branded with bogus part numbers and logos, the extra parts get offered in the gray market at discounted prices. While functional, these components haven't undergone the legitimate manufacturer's QA processes and thus pose reliability risks.

We're on the verge of a return to the bad old days when low quality forced us to test every incoming component. And given today's practice of using COTS devices, the prospect of bogus parts infiltrating military products gives me the chills. Test engineers represent our first—and last—line of defense against counterfeits.

After job losses and manufacturing's offshore exodus, counterfeit products could well represent the last of globalization's chickens coming home to roost.

brad@tmworld.com

For more information For an overview of product counterfeiting, read: Counterfeiting Exposed: Protecting Your Brand and Customers, by David M. Hopkins et al., John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, 2003. For a list of counterfeit electronic parts ranging from amplifiers to trimmer potentiometers, go to www.designchainassociates.com/counterfeit.html. To learn more about the leaky-capacitor problem, read "Leaking Capacitors Muck up Motherboards," www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/resource/feb03/ncap.html. To view Maxim's counterfeit-component warning message, go to www.maxim-ic.com/sales/counterfeit_parts.cfm. For a discussion of counterfeit components in audio applications, see www.sound.westhost.com/counterfeit.htm. To learn how to avoid purchasing counterfeit components, see "Don't get burned by bogus parts," Electronic Business,January 1, 2004, www.eb-mag.com. For discussions of counterfeit high-strength bolts involved in aircraft engine failures and crashes, and "refurbished" circuit breakers, read two documents from the Department of Energy: www.eh.doe.gov/docs/bull/bull9706.htmland www.eh.doe.gov/docs/bull/bull0082.html. Pantex, a nuclear-weapons contractor, emphasizes its suppliers' roles in preventing the purchase of counterfeit parts: www.pantex.com/procurement/suspectCounterfeitItems.html. If you think that counterfeiting only affects electronic components, think again. "Fake parts hobble car industry" from Detroit Auto News recites a litany of auto-related horror stories, including brake linings made of compressed grass that killed a family of seven, bogus transmission fluid made of dyed oil, and gas caps that leaked after rollover accidents: www.detnews.com/2003/autosinsider/0310/03/c01-286629.htm.

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