A Rapid, Non-Destructive Method to Detect Counterfeit Integrated Circuits Using a Resonant Cavity System

The counterfeiting of integrated circuits (ICs) has been a growing issue. Current available methods used to detect counterfeit ICs can be expensive, imprecise, and time-consuming. This paper explores the resonant cavity system: a non-contact, non-destructive method to rapidly differentiate counterfeit ICs from authentic ones. The system captures a unique signature of an IC placed inside it. Data were captured for ICs of various technologies and authenticities. The data included return loss values captured at various transverse electric (TE) modes between 2.8 GHz and 6 GHz. This allowed for the comparison of the effectiveness of the various TE modes in being able to distinguish ICs. The resonant cavity system was able to distinguish most of the ICs at higher TE modes.