A Japanese test house found that 30% of the parts they checked were faulty, according to a report in GizChina.
The report quoted Masaaki Hashimoto, president of Japan’s Oki Engineering, who warned that once fake semiconductors are assembled into equipment, it’s too late. Therefore, many equipment manufacturers are eager to pass pre-inspections.
According to the article, Oki received about 150 inquiries between June and August. Many of them were from industrial machinery and medical equipment manufacturers. After checking about 70 cases, it turned out that about 30% of chips were faulty.
“The counterfeiters now, in fact, have original manufacturers’ equipment. They can silkscreen and really make the parts look to be very, very much the part that you require and in some respects, can actually go past first initial tests, electrical tests, or they could actually meet some of the characteristics that would indicate that it’s the same family,” says Astute’s owner and MD, Geoff Hill.
There are several ways to combat fake chips, says Geoff Hill. “When you’re buying products without any warranty or traceability, you have to test. There’s a AS6081 spec that we use mainly for semiconductors and for components generally. It involves a whole range of equipment that we’ve been using for many, many years. Our comprehensive Astute Counterfeit Avoidance Programme (ACAP) is used to root out counterfeit parts. We have on-site anti-counterfeit testing facilities in both the U.K. and U.S. for carrying out a range of destructive and non-destructive testing, as shown here:”
Astute is a highly accredited, quality-driven procurement expert, with a list of clients that includes the world’s leading defence suppliers. Our mission is to shield you against inferior quality products and services. As such, our operations are run in accordance with quality processes including AS6081 that mitigates the risks of purchasing and supplying fraudulent/counterfeit electronic parts. Find out more about our counterfeit mitigation techniques by contacting one of our experts.
