Fakes Fingered by Their Elements

Engineering & Technology, December 2006

CHIPMAKERS worried about cloned and counterfeit devices are having to break down the chips they think are fakes into their constituent elements to find out for sure.

In a speech to electronics industry executives at Electronica, Joseph Federico. director of New Jersey Micro Electronic Testing, described the problems now facing users, distributors and manufacturers of semiconductors. Suspect products may have the right logos and code marks, but could just be sophisticated fakes.

“It might have a Motorola logo on the top and a Motorola logo inside,” said Federico. “If they are there, does that mean we are done? No.”  The counterfeiter may have copied the maskwork right down to the sometimes whimsical logos device designers put on their silicon creations.

Although the company has been providing materials analysis for some years to chipmakers, it is increasingly being called onto analyze for fakes. Federico said the company looks for differences in trace elements to work out whether parts came from the legitimate manufacturers own processes and fabs, or from a copycat plant As it is unlikely that the processes used by the counterfeiter will match, particularly in the chemicals used during manufacture, the discrepancies will pick out fakes.

“Once we open the device, the infrastructure used had better be the same. If there are any differences in the elements, it is considered a cloned or counterfeit device,” Federico explained. He showed an example where the original component showed traces of chlorine but the clone was richer in beryllium.

The rise of cloning in the region around China has led to increased demand and the company is now putting together two new analysis centres in the Far East. “We are opening facilities in Shanghai and Taipei to help with inspection,” Federico said.