Hi esteemed members, I would like to bring to your attention that counterfeit components can be purchased even from renowned outlets.
Attached is two intelligent FET high side drivers/ Placed on the PCB their markings are identical, however an X-Ray of their internals reveal that they are two unrelated products. These where purchased in sealed reals from a reputable international supplier who claim they are the official distributor for Infineon (but not according to Infineon).
What I would like to impress is if it is worth money someone will counterfeit components, be alert if the price is better than from the supplier, be very suspiscios
Attached is two intelligent FET high side drivers/ Placed on the PCB their markings are identical, however an X-Ray of their internals reveal that they are two unrelated products. These where purchased in sealed reals from a reputable international supplier who claim they are the official distributor for Infineon (but not according to Infineon).
What I would like to impress is if it is worth money someone will counterfeit components, be alert if the price is better than from the supplier, be very suspiscios
Attachments
We are yet to receive a photo from infineon to establish what the real part ectually looks like. Part A and B comes off the same reel next to each other. There are 2000 components on a reel, of which we have found 40% to be like part A and 60% like B.
To me part A looks like it could be an op-amp even, part B does look more like a real one and these do function correctly. I can figure why someone would go to the trouble relabeling parts and place them with "good" parts in the same reels.
Even the bond wires look thinner in the fake one. And the carrier is only earthed through the bonds as well.
I just gotta wonder what kind of money is involved in the counterfieting when their is still so much manufacturing done to make the fake ones work (with much worse quality of course)
Somewhere out there is still a full blown fab just making fake parts, and maybe shaving a dollar or two?
How much are these high side drivers worth?
I just gotta wonder what kind of money is involved in the counterfieting when their is still so much manufacturing done to make the fake ones work (with much worse quality of course)
Somewhere out there is still a full blown fab just making fake parts, and maybe shaving a dollar or two?
How much are these high side drivers worth?
Perhaps they're both genuine infineon parts but one is mislabeled due to some goof up at the factory ? The idea that there are some genuine and some fakes on the same reel seems the least likely of all possible explanations. Unless like the first few pieces on the reel are genuine to pass casual scrutiny, and then the rest are all fake. but OP seems to say they are mixed.
Interesting.
Back in the 80's I was producing solid state amplifiers for a major manufacturer and the output transistors were the 2N3055 type. Some were filled with silicon and others weren't. Some didn't break down at higher current levels that should have destroyed them but others did. That didn't mean that some were fake, they just had different characteristics.
As long as they meet the specification they are fine. If they exceed the specification, that is a bonus.
I would think that as they sell for pennies, they are not worth cloning.
I suspect the same here.
Back in the 80's I was producing solid state amplifiers for a major manufacturer and the output transistors were the 2N3055 type. Some were filled with silicon and others weren't. Some didn't break down at higher current levels that should have destroyed them but others did. That didn't mean that some were fake, they just had different characteristics.
As long as they meet the specification they are fine. If they exceed the specification, that is a bonus.
I would think that as they sell for pennies, they are not worth cloning.
I suspect the same here.
Well, who is that international supplier? Tell his
name! The most important thing is to expose all fakers and those who sell fake stuff. This plague needs to be eradicted!
They are worth about US$ 2.70 while an op amp or similar low current high volume component is maybe US$ 0.18. I know of only a hand full of companies using this particular device so counterfeiting is actually counter productive.
It is our buyers fault and not the supplier of the components because our buyer thought he would be gain favor if he saved the company a lot of money. So I would refrain from naming the supplier, we were victims of our own cleverness.
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It is very likely that they are both fake. It is not only the same lot but from a single reel. The trouble that the counterfeiters went through is totally unbelievable. Could it really be financially rewarding?
I've felt that pain before. A big batch of non-working product due to clever procuirement meeting marginal engineering. Topped off with figure fudging in the test department.
I haven't worked in a chip factory but I have worked in a cannery, production never stops, samples are taken every hour, if a problem is noticed it starts a chain reaction to fix it.
We had 3 grades, A B C and the 4th was trash. We sent a person to the dump to make sure the trash was buried. A grade had our label on it, B grade had another label on it and C grade had the Black and White Generic Label on it.
BTW our canned products sold for $2 bucks a can, we had 9 cents in the most expensive product and we made 4-8000 cans a minute.
I'm sure chips are made the same way.
We had 3 grades, A B C and the 4th was trash. We sent a person to the dump to make sure the trash was buried. A grade had our label on it, B grade had another label on it and C grade had the Black and White Generic Label on it.
BTW our canned products sold for $2 bucks a can, we had 9 cents in the most expensive product and we made 4-8000 cans a minute.
I'm sure chips are made the same way.
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