Guard against common identification methods of fake chips flowing into supply chain IC

Date：2021-09-22 11:40:00Views：1888

As we all know, the production of electronic products needs to take into account both software and hardware. In short, the integration of operating system and hardware is a knowledge. After consumers obtain an electronic product, the appearance and use experience can get feedback at the first time. Even if the separate hardware or operating system can confuse the real with the false, there is still a considerable threshold for the integration of the two. If the integration is not good enough, it will directly affect the use experience of consumers. At present, there is a lack of core market, a large area of supply chain is in an unbalanced state, and a variety of components are in shortage. China has almost the world's largest electronic component Trading Distribution Center, where there are large and small businesses that disassemble tens of thousands of e-waste every day. All these provide market opportunities for fake chips. Most of them are circulated at home, and some are also circulated to overseas supply chains.

According to Nikkei Asia, Tokyo, an electronic product manufacturer dealing with the unprecedented global chip crisis, is increasingly turning to unconventional supply channels to meet their needs - many manufacturers are trapped by counterfeit, unqualified or reused semiconductors.

Junichi Fujioka, CEO of Japanese electronics manufacturer Jenesis, has personally experienced this phenomenon. Unable to purchase microcontrollers from normal sources, his company placed orders through a website at its factory in southern China. However, when the microcontroller arrives, it cannot be started. At the request of the Tokyo based company, an expert inspected the chips and found that their specifications were completely different from those ordered by Jenesis, although the manufacturer's name on the package seemed to be true. Jenesis, who has paid the order fee, tried to contact the supplier, but failed.

This is a warning for electronics manufacturers trying to buy "distribution chips". "Distribution chip" refers to the chip inventory sold by channels other than manufacturers and authorized distributors. Industry officials say the chips are not guaranteed by manufacturers and it is often unclear where and how they are stored, making it easier for suspicious products to enter orders.

In contrast, it is much easier to produce counterfeit chips. There are mainly two kinds of "fake chips". One is to recycle chips from e-waste, then process and repack them, and then flow to the market after secondary processing. The other is to sell scrapped defective products and unqualified products as inferior products. Such products may include chips taken from waste electronic equipment posing as new ones, or chips that do not meet quality standards and should have been treated. There are also malicious cases where the manufacturer's name or model is forged on the packaging. First, the challenge of producing counterfeit chips is not as arduous as that of finished products. At the same time, counterfeit chips do not face consumers directly. In the case of chip emergency in the whole industry, no chip means closing the production line, which makes it impossible for downstream manufacturers to strictly test the chips received. Eventually, counterfeit chips can enter the market more easily.

Here, we also recommend several better methods to help you identify fake chips and avoid losses:

First move: verify the supplier

If you are looking for an agent, it is much less likely to produce fake goods, but sometimes you will encounter fake agents, so the best way is to confirm on the official website or call to see if the manufacturer has agents in the region.

Second move: pay attention to whether the model is renovated after dismantling

Generally, these chips are removed from the used circuit board and then classified. The pins are obviously welded, shiny, and the pin spacing is obviously different. There are differences in the size, font and depth of the printed words and patterns on the surface. The production batch number is generally different, and the origin identification on the reverse side is relatively miscellaneous.

The third move: identify whether the grinding piece

The chip polished after disassembly is very similar to the whole new chip. There is basically no obvious difference in the size, font and depth of the external characters and patterns, and the batch number is basically the same. However, if you carefully observe the chip appearance, you will find that there are many small parallel scratches, the origin marks on the reverse side are also different, and the pins are generally not shiny, but matte, with traces of oxidation, The pin spacing is basically the same. Generally speaking, grinding discs are mainly new ones that are put too long or have complex batch numbers. In order to sell well, they are polished and printed into a unified and relatively new production batch number.

Fourth move: pretend to be a foreign brand

At present, many domestic products are similar to foreign products, which belong to fake and shoddy products, but they can still be used at any rate, but some performance indicators may not meet the requirements of some discrete devices, active devices, connectors and connectors, and their service life is shorter than that of others.

Fifth move: resolution packaging

The self packaging of original products should be relatively high-end. In case of such chips, we can only rely on experience, but not all packaging can be done in China. If we lack experience, it is difficult to distinguish.

Sixth move: view font

These chips have different sizes, fonts and depths of printing ink and patterns. The production batch numbers are generally different. The origin marks on the back are more miscellaneous, but the traces of unused pins are oxidized. Generally speaking, this kind of chips are sold in one tube by commercial merchants who collect unused chips from various ways.

We should know that many fake chips circulate in the supply chain, which will bring quality risks to more electronic products and damage the interests of machine manufacturers and end consumers. Generally speaking, even if a professional testing platform is adopted, mass production testing accounts for only 2 ~ 5% of the total cost of chip production, but testing, as the last line of defense for product quality assurance, has a particularly important impact on the overall cost.