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DARPA Technology Could Uncover Counterfeit Microchips
coondoggie writes The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said this week one of its contractors, working on one of the agency's anti-counterfeit projects has developed and deployed what it calls an Advanced Scanning Optical Microscope that can scan integrated circuits by using an extremely narrow infrared laser beam, to probe microelectronic circuits at nanometer levels, revealing information about chip construction as well as the function of circuits at the transistor level.
Why are big websites never posting images? In this particular case it would have been nice to see at least what a scan of an IC looks like.
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Indeed, now the U.S. government will have tools it needs to create malicious counterfeit chips that are nearly undetectable.
I have had numerous problems with counterfeit transistors and Zener diodes.
How can you profitably screen thousands of rectifier diodes for their zener point, then grind off the original markings, and mold on new partnumbers??
At $0.003 each?
At least the transistors failed spectacularly. :)
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The modern day processor has about 2 billion transistors. That may take a while.
Most of the accused "counterfeit" chips I've read about aren't "counterfeit" at all. They are used, secondary market, chips harvested from used boards. The "infamous Guiyu" of China e-waste fame is a hub where workers cut out individual microprocessors and chips from boards and repurpose them. The general term in the industry is "gray market"... gray because it's not purely black market, and because of the difficulty in distinguishing what the illegality is when a Chinese factory has substituted a working used part for an OEM part.
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Why would the ability to flawlessly clone hardware crypto chips ever be useful to a government that respects privacy?
I am no engineer or scientist, but are these precise enough to be used to extract hw encryption keys? Because if so, I think I can guess the real purpose for developing these.
It is great to have a tool for visual inspection, but IC has many layers. If I was to introduce some nasty feature in an IC, I could bury it in lower layers so that it cannot be seen.
Granted that my experience is way out of date, but why not just try every possible op code, especially undocumented codes and see if they do what is expected? This wouldn't detect counterfeits but could turn up any built-in monkey business.
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From the article:
"The ASOM technology housed at Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane will help engineers provide forensic analysis of microelectronics, including integrated circuits confiscated by law enforcement officials, DARPA stated."
Vague? Move along civilian......
...just take a look at the chip top.
It really isn't rocket science. Take a look at the top of the IC or Transistor, often you'll see a "glazed" top which indicate that the chip has been painted over, and the new fake numbers gets printed on top of the paint.
Another way, look closely at the transistor or semiconductor - just use glasses or a magnifying glass to take a close look, a hobby microscope will do just fine too...if you discover that the surface has been "sanded", you should be on alert.
Cheap knockoffs are IMHO a far greater problem than counterfeit chips, on eBay you'll often encounter 2nd grade components that have failed the factory quality control, these may be fine for hobby usage (in fact, I use them myself - but not for anything serious). These include LED's and transistors, I often purchase these bulk so I can afford to toss them away like candy wrapping and do as many experiments as I wish without thinking about the economics behind it.
The most surefire way to test for counterfeit components is - surprise - to test them. I have a Curve tracer for the Diodes and Transistors, and I can test them in 10-20 current/voltage steps, drain, amplification, switching speed etc...and the curves will show me the actual specs of the semiconductor on the screen, practical stuff. These are rarely cheap though, you can pick one up at eBay...but you're probably better off making one yourself with a Stepping/multiplier-PSU + a cheap oscilloscope as these are VERY expensive, even 30 year old units like mine.
I've shopped for components at eBay for a long time, we're talking over 10 years, and yes...I can confirm that it IS an increasing problem, but not at a disastrous level yet, It's very rare for me to come across counterfeit products...it's FAR more common to come across second-grade components.
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Most of the chips built in China are being built by fabs set up by foreign companies, not indigenous Chinese foundries. There is a big difference. I can't understand why so many companies are willing to provide their technical knowledge to China just to do business with them. Even for people looking to make an extra buck off the cheap labor should see the shortsightedness of taking this path.
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The "shortsightedness" is giving away your technology advantages to a country that is slowly losing their only advantage, namely cheap labor. Low labor costs and little to no corporate regulations in the labor and environmental areas plus some considerable currency manipulation has allowed China's exports to surge. Now other countries in SE Asia are able to compete with China's low labor costs while China's labor force is asking for better wages and benefits which if granted would help stimulate their domestic economy. If China cannot improve it's citizens buying power the size of their market will no longer justify doing anything to enter their market. China may post a high GDP but their per-capita statistics are far behind countries such as Japan and the US. China is not known for their innovation or quality they are just manufacturing what others have designed. Companies willing to give China all their proprietary technology just to operate within China is a one time event. If they decide to move their manufacturing out of China they don't get to ask for their technology back. One good example is when Google folded up their tents and left China instead of capitulating to China's demands.
Once you decap a chip, a toy microscope is enough to tell a counterfeit die from the real thing. Using a laser to stimulate the chip is not a tool to detect counterfeit chips, but for testing, reverse engineer, and thus potentially make counterfeits.
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