Chinese Counterfeit ICs Sold To US Navy. How To Identify Them?

With the Somalian pirates hijacking ships (a Chinese container carrier fell into their hands), key words such as "piracy" and "pirates" seem to be reclaimed by the old fashioned thugs. Read here. However, the newer version of the pirates: trademark counterfeiters and copyright pirates can have just as deadly an effect. October 9, 2009, the US Department of Justice released a press statement that three California family members were indicted in connection with the sales of counterfeit high tech parts (read Integrated Circuits (ICs)) to the US navy military. The counterfeit ICs were imported from China and sold via the internet. Read the press release here.

What to do when even your navy is not safe against counterfeit ICs? Well first you have to be able to identify what is counterfeit and what is not. The Semiconductor Industry Associtation Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force (SEMI) just announced that it developed new standards to facilitate the identification of counterfeit ICs. Read more about it on Electronics News here.