Did you know that the US military estimates that over 15% of all spare and electronic parts for weapons, vehicles and other equipment are counterfeit?
This means that affected defense equipment that is crucial for national safety could potentially malfunction at any time. Counterfeit parts have been found in helicopter night vision equipment, U.S. Missile Defense Agency mission computers and ship-based aviation antenna equipment. “Between November 2007 and May 2010 alone, U.S. Customs officials seized 5.6 million counterfeit microchips destined for military contractors and the commercial aviation industry, and the problem has only grown since then.” That was a long time ago. Can you imagine what the situation is like now?
Military-grade electronic components are made specifically to withstand intense environmental factor; a counterfeit part is not subject to the same design and reliability testing and therefore, may potentially fail when subjected to such stress in the field. And in moments when mere seconds matter most, this means a potentially catastrophic outcome. It doesn’t take much imagination to see how immense and far-reaching this problem can be.
Where does ScanCAD come in? Counterfeit Electronic Circuit Card Detection is one of the standard features of ScanCAD’s ScanINSPECT system, a proven system that has been in the field since 1998 with annual enhancements. We detect electronic counterfeit parts. This offering is becoming more and more important as this problem has grown exponentially for both commercial and defense applications.