What is the chances of electronics components suffering ESD damage due to poor component re-reeling practices?
In UK , we have no significant semiconductor fabrication plants…therefore, components that get here do so by whatever napharious means. Large electronics corporations have large numbers of partially used component reels left over after various reflow production runs. These reels are sold back to subsidiaries of component distributors, who then combine and re-reel them onto new reels, so as to make full reels of components, which just look as if they have come straight from the semiconductor fabrication plant…….very often, such re-reeling is done by staff acting without proper ESD protection. Much of the re-reeling is also done in the Far East, because this is where most of the world’s electronics production happens.
UK distributors are grateful to buy up these cheap re-reeled components….and pretend that they are “fresh from the semiconductor plant”. UK electronics companies then use them and find that their products are regularly blowing up due to ESD damage. Mainland European companies etc don’t have this problem, since they have special relations with semiconductor plants like ST, Infineon, NXP etc etc…so they can buy reels safe in the knowledge that they really are “straight from the semicon plant”.
The UK has no such special relationships with semicon plants…..and the Far Eastern re-reelers are happy to sell duff re-reeled components to the UK, …happy that this will make British made electronics products less reliable than their own Far Eastern exports to UK……..thus increasing the dependency of UK on the Far East etc.
So just how bad has this ESD damage caused by re-reeling of components become?
In UK , we have no significant semiconductor fabrication plants…therefore, components that get here do so by whatever napharious means. Large electronics corporations have large numbers of partially used component reels left over after various reflow production runs. These reels are sold back to subsidiaries of component distributors, who then combine and re-reel them onto new reels, so as to make full reels of components, which just look as if they have come straight from the semiconductor fabrication plant…….very often, such re-reeling is done by staff acting without proper ESD protection. Much of the re-reeling is also done in the Far East, because this is where most of the world’s electronics production happens.
UK distributors are grateful to buy up these cheap re-reeled components….and pretend that they are “fresh from the semiconductor plant”. UK electronics companies then use them and find that their products are regularly blowing up due to ESD damage. Mainland European companies etc don’t have this problem, since they have special relations with semiconductor plants like ST, Infineon, NXP etc etc…so they can buy reels safe in the knowledge that they really are “straight from the semicon plant”.
The UK has no such special relationships with semicon plants…..and the Far Eastern re-reelers are happy to sell duff re-reeled components to the UK, …happy that this will make British made electronics products less reliable than their own Far Eastern exports to UK……..thus increasing the dependency of UK on the Far East etc.
So just how bad has this ESD damage caused by re-reeling of components become?
.
