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68 SMT Magazine • January 2016 • Changing specifications: As well as try- ing to reduce the cost of physical materials, logis- tics and contractual obligation costs can also be a motivation for counterfeiting. If a supplier finds that he is just a few materials short from fulfilling a delivery, he may be tempted to supplement the supply with materials that have similar electrical characteristics, but with wider tolerances, or have electrical characteristics that are close to the ones ordered. The penalty of not being able to fulfill a customer's order because of an incomplete sup - ply is a significant motivator to cheat. Means Now that we identified reasons for motiva- tion, the next issue to resolve is the means, that is, the method with which counterfeit materi- als are introduced into the supply chain. The means can be relatively simple in today's fast- paced electronics manufacturing industry. The counterfeit materials have to look like the origi- nals. With recent technology advances, shaving or filing off the surface marking of an IC and replacing it with new markings, for example, can make an IC look like it's from a different manufacturer than the original. As production machines are upgraded and replaced in factories, the older machines can be taken and reused to recreate or re-mark almost any material. The next step is to put the part into the correct supply form, on taping or in a tray, and package it up to look similar to the original. The final step is the labeling. Company logos can be downloaded from the Internet or simply scanned from genuine labels. Barcodes and for - mats of labels are easy to reproduce. The means and ability to create counterfeit materials is easier by an order of magnitude compared to just a few years ago, which is one of the reasons the occur- rence of counterfeit-related issues has increased. Opportunity Lastly, opportunity is the easiest to iden- tify. Materials are handled frequently between manufacturing and consumption. The many stages of logistics and processing offer multiple opportunities for the introduction of counter- feit materials into the system. The opportuni- ty is supported by the lack of ability to detect counterfeits in a timely and traceable way. With the sheer volume of daily movement of elec- tronic materials, by the time that issues related Figure 2: Scratching the surface reveals artifacts of previous markings. THE EssEnTiAl pionEEr's surViVAl GuidE LOST In THE SySTEM