Category Archives: Newsworthy

Advanced Control of 3D Printers through Voxel

The spectacularly astonishing new technology, additive manufacturing or 3-D printing, continues to grow thanks to reducing costs, new processors, and greater research. The price reduction comes mainly from an increase in the availability of and access to the technology to a broader audience. However, it has other things going for it too, such as increasing automation, expanding materials, improving software, and voxel control, all continuing to push the limits of additive manufacturing.

According to Rich Stump, principal and co-founder of FATHOM, manufacturers typically switched from 3-D printing to injection molding when they need to produce 300-400 parts at a time. However, newer 3-D printers such as the Continuous Build 3D Demonstrator takes that number up to around 1500-2000 parts. This allows customers to reap the benefits of time and cost with repeatable and constant 3-D printing. Not only does this reduce the complexity, but also offers advantages of the iterative design process. The latest 3-D printers are now posing a serious price challenge to injection molding, for bridge-to-production and low-volume runs.

However, 3-D printed metals often suffer from microscopic defects during production, as revealed by research that the Advanced Photon Source at the Argonne National Laboratory of the US Department of Energy has conducted. APS is the leading source of hard X-rays, necessary to image the process of additive manufacturing. Such research produces data for more accurate in-line inspections and helps drive the AM market towards improved reliability.

Apart from the importance of inspecting every centimeter of a printed part, fabricators are also interested in controlling the properties of those areas, and many companies are now working in this area. Just as a pixel relates to a photo, a voxel is a part of the three-dimensional object. Therefore, envision a three-dimensional object made of tiny cubes or voxels. Companies are now trying to control the properties of each voxel individually to allow changes in durometers, color, and other properties.

By controlling the property of individual voxels, fabricators are able to control properties of the metal such as conductivity and thermo-insulation. Introduction of thermo-conducting inks helps to create active sensors smart enough to have a 3-D printed active material within the part. For instance, it is even possible to create a battery within the 3-D printed structure.

Today, da Vinci Color and Mcor of XYZ Printing can print in color. Although Mcor has been in the market for long, they only build layers of paper following a lamination process. On the other hand, the da Vinci Color uses the extruded plastic process they call as the Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) process. This is similar to amalgamating a 2-D color printer with a 3-D printer. The results are spectacular—the new da Vinci Color produces 10 million shades of colors and prints at speeds of 30-60 mm/sec.

Hewlett-Packard has a plan to exhibit further control on the voxel in the coming year. They intend to introduce full color to the 3-D printing scenario. Combining the color capability with a lower pricing is the strategy for Hewlett-Packard, according to Stephen Nigro, president of HP’s 3-D printing business partner.

Advanced PCB Technologies — High Density Interconnect

Engineers often face a peculiar dilemma. On one hand, they need to enhance the functionalities of electronic gadgets they design so that customers have more value for their money, while they are constrained to use a sleek form factor. Not only does this impose a tremendous challenge to cram many components within a highly restricted space, but the challenge extends to maintaining the quality and integrity of the design as well.

Designers meet the challenge in different ways. They use subminiature passive SMD components, often as small as 0402 (0.4×0.2 mm), special fine pitch ICs in packages such as CSP, TQFP, and BGA, and advanced printed circuit technologies that offer thin flexible, multilayer boards, especially the high density interconnect (HDI) types.

Designers use several advanced technologies in producing HDI boards. For instance, rather than using glass fibers for producing the base substrate, HDI boards use Polyimide and similar materials, as these are flexible, more durable, and can withstand very high temperatures without degenerating.

Designers use special plated through vias to interconnect different layers in a multilayer HDI board. Rather than drill holes in the PCB layers using metal drills, fabricators of HDI PCBs use lasers to drill extremely small microvia holes in the layer, which they later electroplate with copper. Since these microvias can be as small as 15-30 µm, they take up very little space on the PCB, leaving a large area for routing the traces.

Designers use traces with width as small as 20 µm to route the circuits on HDI PCBs. In combination with microvias, these thin traces allow them to achieve extremely high routing densities impossible to achieve on regular boards. This is especially helpful when designing with fine pitch ICs and high pin count BGA IC packages that have a pitch as small as 0.5 mm.

BGAs are surface mounting packages with solder ball arrays on their bottom surface. Large BGAs may have as many as 560 solder balls. With pitch size as small as 0.5 mm, it is nearly impossible for designers to run traces from each pad under the BGA. However, engineers have solved this problem in a rather unique way.

In regular PCB design, using vias within pads is taboo, as this causes dry solders. The plated through via wicks away molten solder, leaving very little solder between the pad and the IC pin. However, designers regularly use via-in-pads in HDI PCBs, as this allows them to save a lot of space that they can use for routing. Molten solder does not travel down the microvia in HDI PCBs, as fabricators fill them up and plate them over. This has another advantage, as filled vias become better conductors of heat.

Another trick a designer often uses for gaining higher routing density in HDI PCBs is placing different types of vias such as blind and buried types. Vias connecting inner layers in a multilayer PCB are buried vias, while those originating on one of the outermost layers and connecting to one of more inner layers are blind vias. Unlike a through via that passes straight through the board, designers can stagger blind and buried vias in different layers to achieve higher routing density.

How mSAP Enhances HDI PCB Capabilities

With 5G technology around the corner, we are looking at the emergence of 5G smartphones. While this requires new manufacturing technologies such as high-density interconnect Printed Circuit Boards (HDI PCB), smartphones need to be less expensive and produced at greater efficiencies.

Customers usually covet compact sleek devices. Therefore, manufacturers need to balance function and form so that their products stand out in a crowd in a competitive marketplace. The smartphone market can be a treacherous place with corporate fortunes rising and falling on the success and failures of specific generations of phones.

Smartphone designers tend to use every millimeter of space within the device enclosure to unlock significant value for the user. This is how they are able to fit in large and high-resolution displays, large batteries, and more sophisticated processors. This allows designers offer more functionality with an enhanced feature set, ultimately improving the overall user experience.

As most of the design of a smartphone is form-factor driven, PCBs in the form of high density interconnects are the major contributors. These HDI PCBs are specially designed circuits differing from conventional PCBs as they provide the designer with more functions per unit area. Their main advantage is finer copper traces, thinner and more flexible base material and laser drilled via holes. Although HDI PCBs have played a crucial role in creating miniature smartphones and other embedded subsystems, 5G technology demands are more severe.

The new generation smartphones compatible to 5G requires extremely complex RF front ends and antenna configurations involving multiple inputs and multiple outputs—generally known as massive-MIMO. This not only expands the footprint of the RF content within the phone, but also enhances the processing power necessary to control the staggering volume of 5G data. Simultaneously, all the extra features and functionality affects the battery capacity, and hence, the geometry of the phone. Conversely, if the phone geometry is not to increase drastically, the 5G smartphone will have much less space for the HDI PCB inside.

With the reduction in internal space for the PCB, and use of higher 5G frequencies, designers will need to exercise much stricter control on the impedance of traces. Unless they design with extreme precision, the thin traces in HDI PCBs can increase the risk of signal degradation resulting in lapses of data integrity.

PCB designers and fabricators are overcoming these challenges by following the mSAP process. Fabricators of IC substrates generally use this semi-additive process, and HDI PCB fabricators have adopted its modified version.

Typical line to space ratios on the HDI PCBs are 30:30, meaning designers plan for a spacing of 30 µm between adjacent traces of 30 µm width each. Demands of increasing density are forcing fabricators towards line-space ratios of 25:25 and even 20:20, with the help of mSAP. This enables makers of 5G smartphones and other demanding gadgets to achieve unprecedented densities while offering superior geometries with exacting impedance control for their high frequency operation.

Contrary to the subtractive processes used for normal PCB etching, mSAP does the reverse, essentially coating a thin copper trace onto the laminate and subsequently building up its thickness by electroplating over it.

How Are Industrial Lasers Cooled?

There are several varieties of industrial lasers. Some lasers, such as fiber lasers, have specific arrangements that enable spreading the heat they generate over a larger surface area. This arrangement gives fiber lasers better cooling characteristics over other media. Other lasers need extra cooling arrangements to remove the heat they generate. For example, ion lasers generate extreme heat when active and need elaborate cooling methods. Other lasers, emitting energy in the microwave and far-infrared region of the spectrum such as carbon dioxide lasers are immensely powerful, and cut hard material such as steel. The laser essentially melts through the material it focuses on. The problem is these industrial lasers have a limited surface area from where to exchange heat.

Although people traditionally use thermoelectric modules as heat exchangers, their efficiency has always limited their application. Now, thermoelectric modules are available which exhibit high heat flux density and are able to achieve higher heat pumping capacity compared to standard thermoelectric modules.

For instance, the UltraTEC series of thermoelectric modules from Laird has heat-pumping capacity of up to 340 Watts, which is fully adequate to cool applications such as industrial lasers that offer only a limited surface for heat exchange.

Industrial laser applications are numerous, including drilling, additive manufacturing, micro machining, welding, and cutting. Irrespective of the application, industrial lasers generate tremendous amounts of heat, which needs to be quickly and effectively removed to allow the laser to perform long-term and properly. Cooling lasers efficiently has always been a significant challenge for the industry.

Typical methods of cooling include transferring the excess heat by conduction or convection. Air may be used to remove the heat directly, or the heat could be transferred to a coolant, usually circulating water. The water carrying the heat is then circulated through a chiller or any heat transfer system. However, these arrangements depend on the system size and configuration, and can be expensive, complex, and noisy.

The UltraTEC series of thermoelectric modules offers excellent heat pump density, and allows precise temperature control. In fact, under steady state conditions, temperatures can remain within ±0.01°C. As these thermoelectric modules offer solid-state operation, these cooling solutions do not produce noise or vibrations. Moreover, they are available in multiple configurations, making them simple to implement.

Any laser system needs to be accurate and repeatable. Stability of the laser system is highly dependent on balanced, controlled cooling. The advantage of using UltraTEC thermoelectric modules for cooling is they can deliver highly reliable cooling solutions under conditions where the laser is in continuous use and even when cycling at high powers.

Laird assembles UltraTEC thermoelectric modules from Bismuth Telluride semiconductor materials. They use aluminum oxide ceramics, which are thermally conductive. This makes the UltraTEC thermoelectric modules capable of carrying high currents that are necessary for large heat-pumping applications. For instance, with Qmax rating of 340.6 W at 25°C, these thermoelectric modules can operate continuously up to 80°. This adequately ensures that the laser system will never overheat when being cooled by the high heat pump density UltraTEC series of thermoelectric modules. These modules are RoHS compliant and DC operated.

Using the Raspberry Pi to Secure IoT

The popular single board computer, the Raspberry Pi (RBPi), can effectively secure systems that traditional protection mechanisms often cannot. Industrial control system networks and Internet of Things fall under this category. You can use the RBPi2B and later models as an adequate medium for running the various security tools.

For this project, you need a Micro SD card of at least 8 GB size, and the bigger it is the better, as you can use the extra space to store a longer log data history, for instance, for logging data from Bro IDS. A case for the RBPi is preferable, and you can use one suitable to your individual taste and style. Although optional, a small form factor wireless keyboard is more helpful to configure the device on the fly, rather than using a full size keyboard.

Once you have configured the RBPi for networking, enable SSH and allow configurations from an SSH client. The hardware you will need includes an RBPi2B or later, an 8+ GB Micro SD card, a case for the RBPi, a Micro USB power cord, and an optional mini wireless keyboard.

Use the RBPi website to follow their getting started guide and install the Raspbian operating system using the New Out of the Box Software (NOOBS). Those familiar with the installation system can also use the traditional method of installing the Raspbian OS directly without the NOOBS, and it should work fine. Other OS distributions for the RBPi may also work, but you will need to try them out.

As the RBPi security solution places great reliance on lightweight open-source software, and the device monitors all traffic, you need to install software that inspects the traffic to learn what is going on. This requires installation on an Intrusion Detection System or IDS. Among the several free products available in the market, the one most suitable for the RBPi is the Bro IDS. The Bro inspects traffic at all OSI layers, and adds additional scripting that increases attack detection.

Bro IDS has some prerequisites before it can install on the RBPi. Install the prerequisites via apt-get, and after completing, download the latest source code for the Bro. Now, setup the environment to build, and to install the build—use configure, make, and make install. This allows you to manually control Bro, or use Broccoli to control it automatically.

Although the Bro IDS comes with an extensive signature base that can detect a number of common attacks, you can enhance its signature with Threat Intelligence. Another advantage in using the Bro IDS is the availability of Critical Stack, and you can integrate the threat intelligence with the Bro.

You can use Critical Stack, a threat intelligence feed, as a free aggregator. It functions as a simple point-n-click integration as it pulls data, such as addresses for Tor Exit Mode IP, known phishing domains and/or other malicious IPs. After pulling the data for threat intelligence, the Critical Stack agent formats it into a scripting language that Bro understands. The Bro IDS can pick up the new script automatically.

Tuning an IoT MEMS Switch

Menlo Microsystems, a startup from GE, is making a MEMS-based switch fit into a broad array of systems related to Internet of Things (IoT). Already incorporated into medical systems of GE, they can tune the chip to act as a relay and power actuator for several types of industrial IoT uses, including using it as an RF switch suitable for mobile systems.

Menlo first described their electrostatic switch in 2014. They have designed it with unique metal alloys deposited on a substrate of glass. The arrangement creates a beam that a gate can pull down, making it complete a contact and allow current to flow. Compared to a solid-state switch, this electrostatic switch requires significantly less power to activate and to keep it on. This single proprietary process creates products for several vertical markets.

The low power consumption of the device allows it to handle high currents and power switching. Unlike traditional switches, the MEMS switch does not generate heat, and therefore does not require large, expensive heat sinks to keep cool.

Currently, a tiny research fab run by GE is making the switch. Menlo expects to produce it in larger quantities in mid-2018, through Silex Microsystems, a commercial fab in Sweden. According to Russ Garcia, CEO of Menlo, their biggest challenge is to get the technology qualified in a fab producing commercial items.

The device has huge opportunities as it can replace a wide variety of electromechanical and electromagnetic power switches and solid-state relays. Menlo is planning to roll out several varieties of reference boards incorporating its MEMS chips, which will be helpful in home and building automation, robotics, and industrial automation.

For instance, IoT devices such as the smart thermostat from Nest face an issue of efficiently turning on or off high power systems such as HVACs. According to Garcia, the Menlo switch can do this while drawing almost zero current. Additionally, the Menlo switch offers a two-order reduction in the size of power switches and their power consumption.

It took a 12-year research effort by GE to incubate the design of the MEMS switches. They discovered that reliability issues were related to materials MEMS used, and overcame the issues with alternate unique metal alloys for the beams and contacts of the switch including generating a novel glass substrate. This combination allows billions of on/off switches to handle kilowatts of power reliably.

The medical division of GE will be among the first users of the chip. They will use the chip to replace a complex array of pin diodes in their MRI systems. This replacement by MEMS switches can knock off $10,000 from the cost of each MRI system. This includes the payment to five PhDs who presently tune each of the machines with pin diodes. The new MEMS switch will allow an automatic programming of the system.

Although GE will be an exclusive user for the chips in their MRI systems, Menlo is discussing future uses of the chip with other MRI makers as well. According to Garcia, GE wants to create a new strategic component supplier for the chips. Menlo is also planning to use the chips for RF switches.

How are Transformers Protected in the Field?

For maintaining a power grid in continuous working order, power transformers play a critical part. As repair and/or replacement of components in a power grid typically has a long lead time, protection from faults has to limit the damage to a faulted transformer. Moreover, transformer faults need quick prevention, and certain protection features identify operating conditions that could cause a failure of the transformer. This includes over-excitation protection and temperature-based protection.

Classification of transformer failure is as follows:

Failure in windings due to short circuits—this includes turn-to-turn shorts, phase-to-phase shorts, phase-to-ground shorts, and open windings
Faults in the Core—this includes failure of core insulation, and lamination shorts
Failure of Terminals—this includes open leads, short circuits, and loose connections
Failures of On-Load Tap Changer—this includes electrical and mechanical failures, short circuits, and overheating

Utility and industry power distribution networks utilizing power transformers typically install protection relays for the supervision, protection, control, and measurement of different parameters of power transformers, step-up and unit transformers, and power generator-transformers as well.

Transformer relays provide a flexible protection scheme for power transformers with two windings. They limit the damage to a transformer that has a fault and may identify operating conditions that could cause a devastating transformer or grid failure. Relay protection features include thermal overload protection, differential protection, voltage protection, and automatic voltage regulation. Some relays also have configurable functionality for meeting specific requirements of various applications.

For instance, the transformer protection and control relay, RET615 from ABB, conforms to IEC standards and offers a compact and versatile solution for industrial and utility power distribution systems.

A dedicated protection and control relay, the RET615 offers supervision, protection, control, and measurement of power transformers. It offers several benefits such as a compact and versatile solution, while integrating supervision, monitoring, control, and protection is one single unit.

RET615 offers an extended range of control and protection functionality for power transformers with two windings. It provides the transformer high inrush stability, while offering fast and advanced differential protection.

Setting up and tailoring the RET615 protection and control relay is simple and easy because it has ready-made configurations that match the most commonly used vector groups. This includes swift installation and testing, thanks to its withdrawable plug-in unit.

The RET615 has a large graphical display that shows the customizable SLDs. Users have the choice of accessing the SLDs directly on the display or via a web browser human machine interface that is simple and easy to use.

Along with measurement facility, RET615 also offers voltage and differential protection. It supports several neutral earthing options, including the restricted earth-fault principles of numerical low-impedance or high-impedance. The relay offers high-speed outputs for optional arc protection.

RET615 conforms to IEC 61850 Editions 1 & 2 standards, which include PRP and HSR, and GOOSE messaging. It follows IEC 61850-9-2 LE standard for supervised communication and less wiring.

Time synchronization is highly accurate as the RET615 conforms to IEEE 1588 V2, offering maximum benefit of Ethernet communication at substation level. In addition, RET615 supports DNP3, Modbus, and IEC60870-5-103 protocols for communication.

Butterfly IQ – Smartphone Connected Ultrasound Scanner

Traditional ultrasound scanners are rather expensive, and rarely do people own one to use at home. However, that may be about to change, as Butterfly IQ has now obtained FDA clearance for a portable ultrasound scanner that anyone can use by connecting to their smartphones.

Connecticut-based Butterfly IQ has made an innovative ultrasound scanner that uses a semiconductor chip for generating the ultrasonic signals, rather than the piezoelectric crystal transducers that traditional ultrasound machines use. The semiconductor chip based transducer is much easier to manufacture than the piezoelectric ones are.

Using the semiconductor chip makes the device much less expensive as compared to existing ultrasonic scanners. The cost of ownership comes down further as the device can operate with a smartphone and other smartphone connected devices such as the Philips Lumify device.

According to Dr. Jonathan Rothberg, founder and chairperson of Butterfly Network, this ultrasound-on-a-chip technology opens up a low-cost window for peering into the human body, allowing anyone to access high quality diagnostic imaging. With more than two-third of the population of the world without access to proper medical imaging, this effort by Butterfly is a great beginning.

FDA has cleared the device for 13 different clinical use cases. These include pediatric, urological, gynecological, cardiac, abdominal, and fetal use cases. The scanner transfers the captured imagery directly to the user’s smartphone via a chord, and the smartphone stores the images into a HIPAA-compliant cloud.

As reported by the MIT Tech Review, the chief medical officer of Butterfly Network, Dr. John Martin, was able to detect cancerous growth in his body while testing the scanner. This is an example of the potential of the low-cost ultrasound scanner.

According to Martin, the easy-to-use, powerful, healthcare providers will be able to afford the whole-body medical imaging system for less than $2,000, and it will fit in their pockets. As the price barrier comes down, Martin expects the Butterfly device to replace the stethoscope ultimately in the daily practice of medicine. The impact this technology will provide as a low-cost diagnostic system, can be gaged from the help it will offer to hundreds of thousands of women who die in childbirth, and the millions of children who die of pneumonia each year.

After perfecting the scanner, Butterfly has plans to augment its hardware capabilities with software for artificial intelligence. This will help clinicians interpret the images that the device picks up. The company expects the products with many new features to be ready for the market by 2018. At present, the device works only with iPhones.

According to the President of Butterfly IQ, Gioel Molinari, ultrasound imaging makes a perfect combination with deep learning. With more physicians using the devices in the field, the neural network models keep improving. As physicians use the Butterfly scanner regularly, they will be able to interpret the results better. This will help improve the acquiring and interpretation of the image by the artificial intelligence, which in turn, will help less skilled users to extract life-saving insight from the images captured by the Butterfly IQ ultrasound scanner on the field.

Lead-Free Reflow for High-Layer-Count PCBs

High-layer-count multilayer printed circuit boards (PCBs) present one of the most difficult cases for adaptation to the lead-free reflow assembly process. Often, these boards have through-hole and hand-soldered components, along with the requirement for two or more rework cycles. The slower wetting and higher reflow temperatures of lead-free solders place an enormous strain on the laminates and copper-plated hole barrels of the vias, with resulting loss of reliability.

Restrictions on Hazardous Substances

Printed circuits are coming under increasing requirements from environmental regulations. Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEE) directives and the European Union’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) are significantly affecting the requirements on the base materials used for manufacturing PCBs.

The most popular solder material so far consisted of the tin/lead (Sn/Pb) alloy. used for the assembly of PCBs for many years. The melting point of eutectic tin/lead alloy is 180°C and during assembly, reflow temperatures commonly reach peaks of 230°C. However, one of the major restrictions RoHS places is in the use of the element lead (Pb). This has resulted in development of alternatives to the tin/lead alloy, which are now replaced typically with the SAC alloy, whose primary ingredients are tin/silver/copper (Sn/Ag/Cu).

The SAC alloy has a melting point of 217°C, with reflow temperatures typically peaking around 255-260°C. This rise in the assembly temperature, coupled with the possible requirement of multiple exposures to these temperatures means the base material must possess improved thermal stability. Although there are several effects of lead-free assembly temperature on base materials, three effects deserve special attention for improving the thermal performance. These are:

* Glass transition temperature
* Coefficients of thermal expansion
* Decomposition temperature
*
How Higher Temperature Affects Laminates

The traditional Sn/Pb assembly process exposed the PCB to peak temperatures of 210-245°C, with 230°C being a very common value. At these levels, most lamination materials do not exhibit significant levels of decomposition.

However, at temperature ranges of 255-260°C where the lead-free assembly process operates, traditional lamination materials exhibit a 2-3% weight loss. Furthermore, multiple exposures to these temperatures may result in severe levels of degradation. Thicker boards, many of which are 20+ layers, aggravate the situation, as many of the layers are power or ground planes.

Although one of the simplest ways of complying with the RoHS directive of lead-free assembly may be to change the base laminate and replace the tin-lead solder, this does not work out satisfactorily for thick, complex, high-layer-count PCBs.

Creating Custom Reflow Profiles

Creating custom profiles for high-layer-count PCBs works well for the lead-free reflow assembly process. If the new PCB has thermal requirements close to that of some other PCB already being assembled, tweaking the settings for the existing PCB may be adequate. However, for a new PCB whose thermal requirements do not match any existing types, there may be thermal challenges. In such cases, developing a new profile may be more cost-effective ultimately.

Conclusion

Redesigning to reduce the thickness and the number of layers of high-layer-count PCBs is the way out in achieving reliable lead-free reflow soldering. Moving over to HDI technology, together with the use of BGA connectors, offers a viable solution.

How Counterfeit Electronic Parts and Components Affect Businesses

Although counterfeiting has been an age-old industry, it is only recently that the impact of counterfeit electronic parts and components has come to be highlighted. The public is slowly gaining the awareness of the implications and risks such counterfeited electronics bring to trusting users.

It is difficult for manufacturers to trace the origin of the counterfeited parts compared to the traceability present for the authentic components. It is possible these are older, but legitimate versions of the part, and someone has reprocessed them. On the other hand, these are legitimate fakes, which someone is trying to pass off as real. In both cases, their quality is highly suspect. Receiving counterfeit electronic parts or components in your business can result in mechanical and electrical defects, leading to financial risks and finally to loss of reputation and goodwill.

Mechanical Failures

Scrupulous elements recover a huge number of electronic components and parts from e-waste and reprocess them to sell as new. However, the stress of reprocessing these parts, especially integrated circuits, makes them susceptible to damage. As reprocessing elements do not usually follow proper manufacturing processes, they compromise the integrity of the components, and they occasionally fail to meet the stringent environmental requirements in the field.

Electrical Failures

While reprocessing, usually there is little or no effort to protect the component from ESD damage. Although the counterfeit component may be functioning in the circuit, it is difficult to predict when they will fail. The typical design of genuine electronic components allows them to function for a certain amount of time under specified conditions of use. Reprocessed parts generally fail as their useful life has been exceeded or they have endured dubious production controls and improper processing before they were resold as new.

Financial Risks

Counterfeit electronic components malfunctioning in the product or failing within the warranty period may lead to huge financial ramifications for the business. The financial risks may not be restricted only to simple replacements of the product, but may involve insurance compensations in case human lives are endangered, as could happen in premature failure of sensitive medical devices. The short-term savings from using counterfeit components may not be worth it, considering the financial backlash may turn out to be too huge for the business to handle.

Loss of Reputation and Goodwill

It takes a lot of effort to build up credibility, reputation, and goodwill in business, and these are essential for sustenance and growth of the business. However, the above can only happen provided the customers perceive the products to be of the quality and reliability the business claims they are. Counterfeit electronic components and parts leading to mechanical or electrical malfunctions and failures can easily undermine customer confidence in the business, leading not only to financial loss and legal hurdles, but also to loss of reputation and goodwill.