Abstract
Counterfeiting of electronic components continues to be an evolving issue that greatly impacts many companies around the globe. And with so many initiatives that have either been enacted or are in the works, there is a significant amount of confusion and even fear in our industry. The financial impact and potential loss of life related to counterfeit components has become so great that an enormous amount of attention is now being devoted to identifying and mitigating this risk by both private industry and governments agencies around the world. Many companies are reaching out to test labs for both the testing of their components and direction on how to address some of these issues. This paper addresses a few of the questions that our lab is getting from some of our customers regarding counterfeit IC’s and how we have answered those questions. The goal is to provide some additional insight to allow others to address this issue proactively and without fear.
