TOBYHANNA ARMY DEPOT, PA. - Just like counterfeit money and knock-off watches, there is a counterfeit electronics industry. Some of these counterfeit components have found their way to Tobyhanna Army Depot.
The counterfeits, which range from microcircuits to circuit boards, have been discovered by technicians working on communications-electronics systems.
The counterfeits cause system or component failures, degrading performance and decreasing reliability in the field. For the depot, they can cause an increase in rework and overall increase in the Repair Cycle Time.
"Approximately a year and half ago, Range Threat Transmitter Branch began receiving microcircuits that would overheat and cause failures," said Michael Oravitz, electronics technician, Productivity Improvement and Innovation Directorate (PII). "Julio Asencio, electronics mechanic (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Directorate), discovered the failures during electrical testing of the printed circuit cards for transmitters. Mr. Asencio found that when he replaced the chips, some of the new chips would not work."
After investigating further, he noticed that the chips had different part numbers. At first, it was thought that it was simply a bad batch of chips. But further investigation by James Dominick, an equipment specialist in the Production Engineering Directorate, revealed that that type of chip had not been manufactured since 2005. This led to suspicions that the chips were counterfeit.
The suspicion was confirmed when Dominick found out that technicians were having similar problems at Hill Air Force Base with the same components.
"Tests can confirm if an electronic part is real or counterfeit. Technicians, our first line of defense, should alert their supervisor immediately if they suspect that a component is counterfeit, even if it is something as simple as the identification stamp on a microcircuit looking different from an authentic circuit," said Ray Rowe, electronics engineer, PII.
The parts make their way here often from foreign countries, taken from other systems and altered to look like the real thing. It is a multi-billion dollar 'business' carried out by people who sell the parts, disappear, and return to do the same thing under a different business name.
A U.S. Department of Commerce study put the figure at $10 billion in 2008 for the U.S., just for fake semiconductors alone.
"They get away with it partially because the parts are cheaper than the manufacturer or are available when the authentic parts start becoming scarce," said Rowe. "Cheaper parts are tempting when the pressure is on to get product out the door as cheaply as possible. At this time, businesses cannot test every electronics component without slowing production or delivery."
Rowe noted that businesses are aware of the problem and emphasized that depot technicians and engineers are also working on a process to remove counterfeit electronics as quickly as possible.
Counterfeit electronics is an increasing problem, both at the depot and in the global market. The outsourcing of U.S. manufacturing to third world countries, the lack of copyright enforcement in those countries, and massive stockpiles of electronic waste are factors.
What is planned to address the problem'
"Training is key; shops need to be aware that counterfeit electronics exist and that there are cosmetic features they can look for on suspect components," said Larry Weber, electronics engineer, PII. Weber is responsible for management of the counterfeit electronics awareness program.
To support technicians in identifying counterfeit parts, PII has provided posters showing typical counterfeit component markings and a simple chemical test procedure to confirm counterfeit components.
Technicians are also being made aware that they should be suspicious of poor electrical performance, Weber said. Parts that look perfect but do not perform properly are showing up in orders. This is because they are often production rejects, already labeled at the factory but out of tolerance or having a different manufacturers die in the package.
"These components are sold to distributors as genuine and later resold as first-rate components," he said. "Only when enough components fail repeatedly, causing suspicion, are they found."
Knowing and recognizing legitimate manufacturing logos and finding unknown logos is another hint that the part might not be legitimate.
Affirmation of the authenticity of a suspect component often involves tracing back to the original component manufacturer, brokers and suppliers. Retaining as much paperwork as possible is important to the tracking efforts to ensure Tobyhanna Army Depot doesn't receive more counterfeit components from the identified source.
Tracking progress in each case of suspected counterfeiting is important.
"Again, the first line of defense is the electronics technician," Rowe said. "It is vital that technicians be aware and on the lookout for suspect components. When a technician finds a suspected counterfeit component, the Process Engineering Division (PED) should be contacted."
PED coordinates and conducts analysis and or testing. Once PED has confirmed that the component is counterfeit, the component should be reported as non-conforming or discrepant. Reporting of the non-conforming or discrepant component triggers involvement of an expeditor, who will forward the contract/purchase orders to the Quality Assurance Specialist. Upon review of the PED analysis, a Product Quality Deficiency Report is initiated by the QA Specialist, and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Liaison is notified.
"We are and have been instituting and refining existing Best Practices based on recommendations provided by a recent Department of Commerce study aimed at combating counterfeit electronics," said Weber.
In addition to confirming counterfeits through visual examination and chemical testing, PED performs limited physical inspection and destructive testing of suspect counterfeit electronic components. When appropriate a small sample of known good components and suspect components are de-capped. De-capping involves removing the top of the component package to gain access to the die. These activities are being performed in the depot's Quality lab.
In other instances, we can determine the component application and breadboard a circuit to test functionality of the component," Oravitz said. "The engineering lab here is being used for more complex analysis of component operations."
"Counterfeiting is not likely to lessen, so we need to be proactive on many fronts," Weber said. "It is everyone's job. Awareness is our best line of defense in combating counterfeit electronics to ensure that we continue to provide the warfighter with the highest quality product available."
Art Goble, an electronics technician in PII, has also developed a counterfeit electronics briefing which will be placed on the depot's intranet by the end of January to further educate the work force about the counterfeit electronics issue.
Tobyhanna Army Depot is the Defense Department's largest center for the repair, overhaul and fabrication of a wide variety of electronics systems and components, from tactical field radios to the ground terminals for the defense satellite communications network. Tobyhanna's missions support all branches of the Armed Forces.
About 5,600 personnel are employed at Tobyhanna, which is located in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania.
Tobyhanna Army Depot is part of the U.S. Army CECOM Life Cycle Management Command. Headquartered at Fort Monmouth, N.J., the command's mission is to research, develop, acquire, field and sustain communications, command, control computer, intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors capabilities for the Armed Forces.
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