GAINESVILLE, FL -- A group of professors at the University of Florida today announced a new counterfeit IC image repository aimed at giving industry a solution for identifying fake parts.

Located at www.counterfeit-IC.org, the database contains images illustrating defects found though physical inspection for a large number of electronic components.

Counterfeit electronics are a prevailing supply chain issue, which have continued to become more widespread in recent years. Since most of the chips in the market today are not equipped with mechanisms to aid in counterfeit detection, physical inspection is the most relied upon counterfeit detection approach. Physical inspection requires a wide range of imaging modalities (optical, SEM, x-ray, etc.), materials characterization tools, and other tests to extract “defects” (anomalies) on the inside and outside of a component’s package, chip leads, ball grid, etc. Any research that could reduce the time and cost associated with physical inspection would be an immense help to industry and government, but is held back in large part by a lack of data.

The new site is a resource for learning about counterfeit defects and what they look like; compiling information about the frequency and correlation of defects found from optical inspection of ICs; optimizing tests and reducing the inspection time/cost; and developing automated defect detection and counterfeit IC classification based on image processing and machine learning. Currently, the repository contains optical images obtained by the FICSR team only, with x-ray and SEM images to be added in the future. The website also possesses the capability for registered users to add their own defect content and images.

The project is maintained by the The Florida Institute for Cyber Security Research and sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

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