Rapid and Reliable Identification of Counterfeit Electronic Components

Counterfeit and subversively modified electronic components represent a substantial threat to Department of Defense (DoD) systems.Several reports indicate that various types of counterfeits cost the US billions of dollars annually and over 11,000 jobs.In Phase I TRI/Austins team proposes to demonstrate the feasibility of discerning aged, recycled and remarked components from new, authentic parts.In Phase II we will expand the work into more difficult applications such as cloned and tampered parts.Our team has a strong background in accelerated life testing and failure analysis of military microelectronics; microwave and millimeter wave nondestructive testing; microelectronics electrical testing; and counterfeit electronic parts avoidance and detection.In Phase I we will perform various RF experiments on powered and unpowered microelectronics.These experiments will be performed on authentic new and aged components manufactured in the same batch.They will also be performed on several different types of known/suspect counterfeits supplied by a large DoD prime contractor.All methods will be rapid, nondestructive, use no ionizing radiation, and require no, or minimal, fixtures.