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100 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2022 Feature Article by David Mills ALITHEON, INC. According to the Alliance for Gray Mar- ket and Counterfeit Abatement, 1 it is estimat- ed that legitimate electronics companies miss out on about $100 billion of global revenue every year because of counterfeiting. In addi- tion to the tremendous loss of revenue, coun- terfeit parts oen have inferior quality and dif- ferent specifications, making them potentially hazardous if incorporated into mission-critical systems such as military equipment, aircra navigation, life support, or space vehicles. e financial damage of counterfeit components goes far beyond the cost of merely replacing the items. e electronics industry is badly in need of standards and solutions which can provide re- liable authentication and provenance, at the component level, to support Industry 4.0 ini- tiatives and end-to-end traceability. IPC-1783 is a new standard under development which establishes the methodology for the absolute authentication and provenance of singular ma- terials and composite products using immuta- ble unique identification (immutable ID). What is an Immutable ID? e proposed IPC-1783 standard calls out the need for an "immutable ID" that can be linked to the product. is immutable ID, by design, must be a secure, digital representa- tion of a physical object. It must enable secure and traceable authentication as part of product lifecycle provenance. As a "crypto-anchor," it must provide positive identification through- out the hierarchy of manufacturing and distri- bution operations. We are all familiar with some of the more common methods used to "tag" and identify products, like barcodes, RFID tags, and other "additive" methods. However, these methods have their challenges as they: • Can be difficult to secure • Are vulnerable to failure or mishandling • Can be counterfeited • Require physical alteration of the part or component Component Level Traceability in a Counterfeit World