Defending Against Counterfeit Electronic Parts and Gray Market Practices

Counterfeiting, especially the fraudulent manufacturing, distributing and selling of fake semiconductors, is a growing problem throughout the electronics industry. It has a negative effect on reputable component manufacturers and distributors, causes purchasing dilemmas for component buyers, problems for equipment manufacturers and trouble for equipment operators. In a worst case it may cause manufacturers to be driven out of business and catastrophic disasters through equipment failure.