Electronic waste rules could help thwart flow of counterfeit parts.

• Author: Burger, Jim
• Position: EXPORT POLICY

As highlighted in a report by the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, a flood of counterfeit electronic parts from China threatens the reliability of sophisticated defense technologies from thermal weapon sights to advanced missile systems and from aircraft to submarines.

The committee found more than 1,800 cases of counterfeit parts in defense systems. But like the proverbial tip of the iceberg, what we can see is only a small part of the problem.

From our respective vantage points in the defense and computer industries, we have observed that the problem has continued to grow in recent years. While the federal government and the defense industry are implementing prevention and detection measures, additional action is needed by Congress.

Counterfeits threaten reliability because advanced defense systems require sensitive electronic components manufactured in ultra-clean environ-merits. Employees must wear "bunny suits" to prevent skin or hair being shed into the environment because even a small flake of dandruff can ruin a microchip and potentially compromise the performance of the hardware it drives. Moreover, legitimate semiconductor companies subject all of their chips to electronic testing to ensure they perform properly. Military chips are subject to additional environmental testing.

By contrast, counterfeiters re-process used electronic components pulled from e-waste--the source of their feedstock. As the Armed Services Committee report found, "much of the material used to make counterfeit electronic parts is electronic waste, or e-waste, shipped from the United States and the rest of the world to China."

The used parts are subjected to harsh re-processing practices that add to the performance risks before they are resold as "new." E-waste is shipped by boat across the Pacific Ocean, smuggled into China and trucked to Guangdong Province, the epicenter of counterfeiting activities. There, workers pull apart the e-waste by hand, often in backyards and dump sites. The e-waste is often heated over open fires to loosen electronic components so they are easier to remove from the circuit boards to which they are soldered. Because e-waste contains toxins, these processes create serious health and environmental hazards for the workers and the community at large.

The parts are then dumped on sidewalks for sorting. The process is messy, so the components are washed in a river or left outside in the rain.

After drying in the open air, the parts...