High Reliability industries are vulnerable to counterfeit ICs

High reliability industries such as the Defence, Medical, Aerospace, Oil & Gas sectors rely on electronic parts that are no longer produced by the original manufacturers or even sold by their authorised distributors. That reliance is based, in part, on the long life cycles of these systems. An electronic part may be manufactured for two years, but many defence, medical and aerospace systems which use these parts may be in service for more than two decades. Older components often need to be properly tested and would require retinning to avoid solderability issues like tin whisker.

These high reliability industries are critically dependent on a technology that obsoletes itself every few years or even faster in some cases, is made in locations which are not secure and over which they have no market share influence. 

To source scarce parts, purchasers in these high reliability industries often buy from independent distributors or brokers. This introduces high risk of faulty or counterfeit components being acquired.

W - www.retronix.com

E   - info@retronix.com, sales@retronix.com

Contact us - http://www.retronix.com/contact-us

Know more about our Automated Retinning (Click here)

YouTube | LinkedIn | Twitter

Retronix Develop Unique Re-tinning Tool for Aerospace Customer

An Aerospace company had a large amount of LGAs with a gold pad finish that they wanted to convert to a lead finish. They wanted the re-tinning to comply with the GEIA standard, the issue was that the components were very small and any standard tooling would not have been able to perform the service on the components.

Retronix developed a very cost effective piece of tooling that held the row of the components and allowed them to be processed automatically without causing any issues.

The components were then XRF tested to verify compliance and shipped to the customer within 5 days.

Retronix 'IC Rescue' process helps maximise returns for a service repair company.

A service company that specialised in field repairs of telecommunication systems had a large quantity of spare PCBs, all brand new, that they bought in order to carry out repairs on systems. The product turned out to be far more reliable than estimated, and the product did not sell in the volumes expected.

The end result was that the service company ended up with a large quantity of brand new PCBs they had no use for, and there was no obvious external market.

Using Retronix’s “IC Rescue” process, the PCBs were stripped of valuable ICs, which were then offered to the market as 100% genuine, zero hours use ICs which were safely recovered from brand new PCBs.

These were either utilised on other PCBs which used the same chips, or sold on the general market to other companies, who knew they were recovered but also knew it was done with zero reflows and were from brand a new certified product.

This allowed the service company to maximise their return  on this product which otherwise would have returned no value, other than precious metal recovery.

For more information -

Know more about Retronix | CLICK HERE |

Know more about our IC Rescue Process | CLICK HERE |

We welcome you to join our LinkedIn group | CLICK HERE |

Contact us : | CLICK HERE | info@retronix.com | sales@retronix.com

YouTube | LinkedIn | Twitter

Anti Counterfeit IC Testing : Visual Inspection

As part of the Retronix Anti-Counterfeit IC testing service a customer approached us asking for our level 1 authenticity test, specifically the visual inspection service.

The customer send us approximately 3000 qty - NUD4700 type parts and asked to pick a random sample of 11 for visual inspection to check for authenticity. The reel information and datecodes given were the following: 

    Where :

  

    M = Date Code

    MNH = Device Code

    . = Pb-Free Package

The first check straight away points out certain discrepancies.  Markings do not match the information on the datasheet, and the direction of the text with reference to the Anode was found to be incorrect, further inspection about the device itself revealed the following:

As it can be seen from the datasheet image and from the image that is sourced from Mouser Electronics, the bottom side of the device should be connected to the Cathode and continue onto the entire bottom side. But as can be seen with the image of the device on the right that these devices have two isolated pins with the bottom side being the outer casing and not a contact, this shows us that the device in question is not as per standard and is considered suspect.

Continuing investigation of the device for further inspection shows:

1                                              2        

Device contacts are found to be incorrect, Anode and Cathode are formed into a gull wing as can be seen in 'Image 2' and not as they originally should have been as shown in 'Image 1'

Conclusion :

The visual inspection of the sample puts the batch as suspect and cannot be termed original as per standard datasheet and information available about the device. The report along with all photographic evidence and technical information was provided as a report to the customer as suspect counterfeit. This gives the customer a good insight into future purchases from the buyer and also this current purchase which could have caused big issues in case the customer would have gone on and implemented the same into his supply chain.

Are you interested in getting your IC purchases tested and have complete peace of mind? We have a huge range of IC testing services which can be found  here : Tell me more

In case you need to know more about our services and want to get in touch with our test manager then send in your enquiry using our contact us page : Click Here

For more info about Retronix - Click Here

We welcome you to join our LinkedIn group Click Here

Contact us : Click Here | info@retronix.com | sales@retronix.com

YouTube | LinkedIn | Twitter

Automated Re-Tinning and Alloy Conversion for higly specialised industries like Defence | Medical | Aerospace | Oil & Gas

Retronix offers the safest and most reliable processes for retinning and alloy conversion available in the market today; to know more click here. 

We process a huge range of components:

Thru hole Resistors, connectors, ICs, SMD Chip resistors / caps, miniature crystal oscillators, all types of SOIC

All types of QFP and large surface mount components, for more information click here

all BGA components; for more information click here 

Our processes are fully compliant with, and exceed, requirements for ANSI-GEIA-STD-0006, the standard for replacing solder finish on components.

Our process : 

• Are fully automatic and repeatable
• Full thermally controlled
• Have no abrasive processes to damage substrate.

We have expertise in dealing with high reliability sectors requiring completely automated work done on the components for high reliability solutions. For example : Automated Re-tinning done for a company belonging to the Aerospace sector.

  

For more info -
Know more about Retronix | CLICK HERE |
Know more about our Automated Re-tinning process | CLICK HERE |
We welcome you to join our LinkedIn group | CLICK HERE |
Contact us : | CLICK HERE | info@retronix.com | sales@retronix.com

YouTube | LinkedIn | Twitter

Mr.Tony Boswell at SMT Nuremberg 2013, talking about the new processes at Retronix Ltd.

Tony talks about the electronic component recovery business, and that Retronix have developed a process that avoid any additional reflow cycles, Tony also goes on to explain that it is not just economic factors but supply chain shortages that have led to a growing demand for IC Recovery.

Source: EMS Now

In order to know more please visit our website on www.retronix.com or you can contact us directly from the website using our contact us section http://retronix.com/contact-us or you can also email us on info@retronix.com 

For relevant updates please do follow us on our various social media channels:

Twitter : https://twitter.com/RetronixUK
LinkedIn : | Click Here |
LinkedIn Group : | Click Here |
YouTube: | Click Here |
Facebook: | Click Here |

Retronix- A One Stop Shop For All IC Testing and IC Repair

Retronix IC test facility is not only a one stop shop for all IC testing, we can carry out in house repair too.  From various electrical tests to detect counterfeit, to solderability and programming testing, we are equipped to test most ICs.  However with our alloy conversion & retinning services, we can repair any repairable faults.  If old ICs (QFP or BGA) have solderability issues, we can repair and verify the fix.  We can also convert from lead to lead free and vice versa.

For more info about Retronix | CLICK HERE |

We welcome you to join our LinkedIn group | CLICK HERE |

Contact us : | CLICK HERE | info@retronix.com | sales@retronix.com

YouTube | LinkedIn | Twitter