May/June, 2012
www.us-tech.com Still Endangering our Troops By Dale Lillard, President, Lansdale Semiconductor, Phoenix, AZ O
ur all-volunteer military is in daily mortal danger — not nec- essarily from terrorists, road-
side bombs or combat — but from trusted electronic equipment that may suddenly fail for no discernible reason. Yet we know the probable reason: counterfeit parts that some-
counterfeit integrated circuits. There are many more parts being counter- feited, and they are harder to identi- fy. Industry and government have both recognized the risks and are taking action to mitigate the procure- ment of counterfeits. Defense con- tractors are making more of an effort to purchase from authorized sales channels when possible. Distributors have been forced to be both police and investigators to ensure their cus- tomers receive legitimate product, so they are implementing processes to
evaluate product that is suspect. An entire industry now exists just to provide investigative tools and serv- ices to identify bad product. The Defense Supply Center Columbus (DSCC) has instituted a qualification process for distributors and brokers supplying products to them that helps prevent counterfeits, and the government has also stepped up its efforts to stop counterfeiting, recog- nizing its negative impact on defense and commerce and that it is a danger to public health, public safety, and
fair competition. John Morton, Director of U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforce - ment, confirmed that the govern- ment is stepping up its enforcement efforts against counterfeit products in general. All industries, including software, pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, and semiconductors, are affected. Recently, there have been 20,000 seizures, 2,000 cases of coun- terfeits, and 365 arrests. He esti- mates that 40 percent of the supply
Continued on page 56 Counterfeit Components
Page 53
You can’t tell by just looking; any one of these ICs could be counterfeit.
how had made their way into this critical product supply chain. Counterfeits were once again
seriously addressed at the most recent military-sponsored Diminish - ing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages (DMSMS) and Standardization Conference. The conference had been started in 1982 to help mitigate DMSMS, and now it also includes a focus on the growing problem of counterfeits. While counterfeits are often
found in the supply chain when a part is DMS, they are also common when a part is still available in the market. Barry Birdsong, Quality, Safety, and Mission Assurance Directorate Parts and Materials Program Manager for the Missile Defense Agency stated that of the 8 counterfeit components found since 2004, only 4 were considered DMS while the other 4 were still available from manufacturers. This is a result of a faulty procurement process that historically purchased product of unknown origin from the lowest bid- der with no regard for the system risk and possibility of failure that could be caused by counterfeits.
Parts Shortages Major Factor Still, if a legitimate component
is not on the shelf at an authorized distributor when it is needed and for the same or a better price than it has been purchased for in the past, then the component is often sourced out- side authorized sales channels to meet the required delivery and costs. This standard purchasing process increases the possibility of receiving counterfeits. The solution is to plan far enough ahead to give the procure- ment department enough lead time and pricing flexibility to purchase through authorized sales channels and from legitimate aftermarket manufacturers. Lead times for DMS products often are lengthy, but given time, good, genuine product can be sourced. The major distributors such as Avnet and Arrow recognize the problem and have aligned with after- market manufacturers to ensure legitimate product can be provided. There has been a substantial increase in the last three years of
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