There are so many different IC chips on the market, and you don't pay attention to distinguishing them. Sometimes it is difficult to see the difference between the various materials, whether they are true or false, brand new or refurbished. Let the senior IC purchasers teach you how to distinguish original and scattered new chips.
Normally, the formal testing process is time-consuming and costly, so some fabs will sell untested wafers to manufacturers that need bare dies, and the latter will test them themselves. However, the latter usually do not have good test equipment, and at the same time, to save money and reduce the test items, some chips that could not be passed in the semiconductor factory are used in the final product, resulting in unstable product quality.
Those who are willing to take advantage of these shortcomings and develop professional counterfeiting companies, some small and medium-sized companies that made a lot of money and lost money have lost their profits. It is undeniable that fake components have become a cancer of the supply chain.
The real and fake chips are almost identical in appearance and size
In recent years, many contractors no longer add new suppliers once they have determined the list of authorized suppliers. However, when OEMs, OCMs, and authorized distributors are unable to provide parts, purchasers have few choices. They can not purchase components, slow down production, or even stop production; or, they can buy from suppliers that have not been audited by their own organization or have not been evaluated by any authorized third-party. As a result, independent distributors, agents, and traders may provide them with original, bulk, refurbished and used components.
Almost everyone in Huaqiangbei knows that some people have purchased some electrical waste products (commonly known as electronic waste) abroad for a long time, and after they are shipped back, they are dismantled, sorted, sorted, refurbished, packaged, and sold in the electronic market.
The primary counterfeiter is a refurbishment , a typical representative of a certain place in Guangdong. It is to refurbish the old film (usually the disassembled film), and the pins can be turned up like the new one if the pins are crooked, and they are tied into a tube and labeled.
A higher level of fraud is polishing , making more valuable films with similar functions and sizes, and rebranding them with the logo, so the commercial grade becomes industrial grade, industrial grade becomes military grade, military grade becomes 883, and low speed becomes high speed. Low frequency becomes high frequency and so on.
Thanks to the lower and lower prices of small laser marking machines, refurbished ICs are easy to use laser marking. Some traders will polish them themselves, and some will entrust them to professional polished "falsified assembly lines . "
There is also a kind of fraud that has reached its peak. I personally suspect that a packaging factory is directly involved. This is not just as simple as polishing off the logo, it will directly make a die of different sizes into another package.
The last kind of fraud, to the extreme, seems to be close to whitewashing. For example, sometimes when you go to Huaqiangbei to buy an MCU, the other party will ask you whether you want the original factory or the Taiwan version. There are two situations for the Taiwan version. One is directly counterfeiting the product, and the other may be Taiwan. Produced, it has also been tested and authorized by the original factory, but it may be a little short on some indicators, and this type of product cannot be considered a fake.
Generally, the focus of the incoming inspection of system manufacturers is to check the supply, labels, etc. The distinguishing ability of fake chips is really not enough. If you really want to measure the performance of the chip, you may need a professional fixture from the original factory.
In addition, the materials department and the R&D department are usually managed separately. Under normal circumstances, for samples, engineers may find problems during the debugging process, but after the design is completed, they will not be tested again in the batch stage.
In addition, the current level of fraud is so high that even the original factory engineers said that in many cases, they cannot be distinguished by the naked eye. Experienced original factory engineers may use familiar packaging methods, barcodes, etc. It comes out weird, but to truly determine whether it is a fake chip, you have to rely on advanced laboratory equipment.
The chips we bought mainly include the following:
1. Original original packaging
Products with original original packaging.
If you are ordering from the market, you still need to pay attention. The prone to problems are:
1. Counterfeit of domestic packaged goods: It is difficult to identify, only through comparison, there are still some differences in the outer box, label, and packaging.
2. Fake original packaging: Compare whether the label is different from the original label, the batch number on the label and the batch number on the chip should be consistent.
The original packaging is very regular, and some are wrapped in anti-static bags, but not all manufacturers’ products will have anti-static bags.
If it is an unopened anti-static package, the tube or plate inside should be very clean after opening. If there are plastic foams or shock-proof plastic bags, these accessories from major foreign manufacturers are difficult to imitate in China, and the difference can be seen by comparison.
Take out several films from a tube or tray and arrange them side by side. The typing content of the original product must be the same. The typing, positioning holes, and feet are relatively neat, and the content in the positioning holes is also consistent. Of course, it is not ruled out that some manufacturers are not fixed on the positioning holes and typing positions, such as AVAGO.
2. Original
The original packaging has been opened or there is no original packaging, but it is the original original product. Nowadays, many products in the electronic market are such original original products. It is understandable that such products are classified according to the original packaging, but they are strictly speaking. Belongs to bulk new goods .
PCBA EMS service
Email : lisa.xu@pcb-hero.com