Fundamental Study on Detection of Counterfeit Parts with Abnormal Aging Characteristics Using Electromagnetic Backscattering from I/O Circuits

Due to a global shortage of semiconductors, there are growing concerns about the long-term availability of legacy semiconductor chips. As a result, maintaining backstock products and using refurbished products are becoming practical maintenance strategies. In such situations, there’s a risk that “counterfeit parts” - counterfeit or imitation chips, or chips with abnormal aging characteristics - might enter the market. These counterfeit parts require technologies to identify and eliminate them. This article focuses on counterfeit parts with abnormal aging characteristics and proposes a method to detect non-invasively whether such integrated circuits (ICs) are present inside a device without opening it. The proposed method confirmed that by irradiating the device to electromagnetic waves of about 1065 MHz with an intensity of 30 dBm, ICs could be detected by accelerated testing in which an overvoltage was applied.