EE Times Under The Hood - October 8, 2007 - (Page 60) under the hood: SEMICONDUCTORS parts with legitimate part numbers and logos. Even putting the devices back into a reel to replicate official production is not too difficult. Counterfeiting components has a significant negative impact on the industry. First, it can hurt the reputation of a manufacturer. For example, a company buys a device and tries to design it into a system. Unbeknown to the company, the part may not be legitimate. If the part doesn’t work correctly, the company will either blame its design or the manufacturer. Counterfeit devices also pose a threat to consumer safety since they Gbit multilevel-cell NAND flash. We received a purchase order with a part number that was identical to the one we had requested, which had Toshiba markings. When the part arrived, we noticed something fishy on the package marking. The part number was TC58NVG4D1DTG00. A quick Web search showed hits on the 16-Gbit 56-nm MLC NAND flash. The Toshiba title looked a bit odd, but not so unusual that it was flagged. A decap was done, and photos of the die and die marking images were taken. To our dismay, the die markings were not Toshiba’s, but Samsung’s. www.eetimes.com • www.techonline.com The counterfeit device had Toshiba markings but a Samsung die inside. You can see the actual Toshiba device markings on the second device. The Samsung die can be seen in the third image. are not likely to have been tested to industry standards. If a semiconductor overheats, for instance, it can destroy the product. If a counterfeit DVD player overheats, it can start a fire and destroy a home. What if a counterfeit part was used in a car? The potential impact of a failing component here could be catastrophic. SI scours the world for the latest and greatest semiconductor components. In NAND flash, we successfully sourced Samsung 51-nanometer and Toshiba 56-nm devices, but it took a few tries before we were able to get legitimate components. The first part we expected to receive was the Toshiba 56-nm 16- After comparing the markings (K9G4G08U0A) in our database, we were able to match them to Samsung’s 4-Gbit 65-nm MLC NAND flash. If we had ordered the part for system-design purposes, our system would have failed, since the device was only a 4-Gbit model and not the 16-Gbit model we had ordered. While the number of pins was the same on both the legitimate and the counterfeit parts, the pin configuration was different. The counterfeit parts, which use the Samsung die, have a 2-kbyte page size. The Toshiba device has a 4-kbyte page size. Designing-in the counterfeit part would only result in partial function- ality—if it even worked at all—when trying to utilize the entire expected memory space. The next part we expected was IM Flash Technologies’ 50-nm NAND flash, which we first analyzed in July 2006. The Micron marking on the package was definitely odd compared with the original samples we received, but the part number was accurate. We do not see pictures of the devices prior to their being sent in, so while the marking was odd, we couldn’t determine that it was counterfeit when we placed the order. Analyzing the die in this package revealed Samsung yet again. This time, it was the 8-Gbit version of the same device that was found in the counterfeit Toshiba part. The last part we expected was Samsung’s 51-nm 16-Gbit MLC NAND flash. It was received from a different supplier. This time, there was a single character missing from the package marking. The counterfeit part bore the part number K9GA08U0M; the legitimate part is the K9GAG08U0M. More interesting were the X-ray images that were taken. The nine parts that were received all had multiple dice inside. So not only did we get counterfeit parts, it seems someone grabbed whatever was lying around, retagged all the pieces as Samsung devices, and sealed them in a strip. A quote from a discussion with a Toshiba executive serves as an appropriate close. “We realize that there is an ongoing issue with counterfeit chips,” said Scott Nelson, vice president of memory products for Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. “It’s a ‘buyer beware’ situation, in which we encourage customers to make sure that they are really receiving the product they think they’re buying. One way buyers can help protect themselves from counterfeit parts is to purchase products only through manufacturers’ authorized distribution channels.” ■ 60 Electronic Engineering Times, TechOnline | October 8, 2007 http://www.eetimes.com http://www.techonline.com
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