Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1440051
88 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2022 Feature Article by Eyal Weiss, Ph.D. CYBORD Introduction e COVID-19 pandemic has caused sup- ply chain disruptions and component shortag- es. e pandemic shut down many avenues for raw materials and bulk electronic components, leaving manufacturers with half-finished prod- ucts and idle capacity. Allocations are forcing manufacturers to purchase components on the free market. is is increasing the risk of coun- terfeit, out-of-date 1 , mixed lots, badly handled, recycled, and defective components, from the typical 0.5–1.5% when purchasing from trust- ed sources, to 5–10% of purchasing in the free market. While this risk is conventionally miti- gated by performing sample lab tests on com- ponents purchased in the free market accord- ing to SAE AS6081, sampling only a small frac- tion of the components carries many risks 2 . Lab testing does not address out-of-date, mixed lots, badly handled, tampered, or defec- tive components which may be randomly scat- tered within a package. In this work we show that all the evidence needed to deem components suitable for use exist on their external packaging. e packag- ing of components has subtle intrinsic features imprinted during the packaging process that serves as a "fingerprint" of the component man- ufacturer. Recycled components may under- go black topping, remarking, and repacking— all leaving visible evidence on the component's exterior. Cloned, overproduced and defec- tive components are packaged using a different source, presenting a different package. Re-dat- ing old components may be detected externally by the poor state of the leads. ese subtle fea- tures may be used to authenticate components. We also present a novel method to estimate the apparent age, and as a result, the solder- ability of the component based on the opti- cal surface of the soldering leads 1 . e solder- leads are the fastest aging part of the compo- nent, as it is made of a metallic compound that corrodes and decays by intermetallic interac- tion 3 . As a result, lead condition is an excellent indicator of a component's apparent age, stor- age conditions, and handling conditions. Counterfeit Mitigation by In-line Deep Visual Inspection