Fake MAX3089CSD, date code 1338

[peter-h]

Just got 897 of these. All on populated boards...

Pic of the chip next to a good one.

[kylehunter]

Ouch.. Did you source them from a third party distributor? Or was this supplied from the CM? Also, what's the issue(s) you noticed with the fakes?

[48X24X48X]

Maxim is one of the brand to look out for counterfeit item due to it's high price and hence a big margin for these counterfeit seller.
If the pricing seems too far off (cheap) from Maxim's retail price, it's quite surely it's fake.
Many years back, I had bought fake MAX6675 from China when I just started selling boards.

[SMTech]

Maxim is one of the brand to look out for counterfeit item due to it's high price and hence a big margin for these counterfeit seller.
If the pricing seems too far off (cheap) from Maxim's retail price, it's quite surely it's fake.
Many years back, I had bought fake MAX6675 from China when I just started selling boards.

On the flip side compared to TI,LT/AD, Microchip & Xilinx our supply direct from Maxim or proper distribution of their ICs is fairy reliable so perhaps the higher price keeps people scrabbling for the alternatives or maybe they just plan a bit better.

[peter-h]

It seems a totally dead chip. There is silicon inside; last time I had one (a fake Hitachi H8/300) there was none.

The price was £1.16 which is about right, and about 1.5x of the "old right price".

2nd tier disti.

[daisizhou]

It's normal, many people in China are doing fake chips.
You have to look carefully at the package of the chip and the traces of the pins.
If there is a way, it is best to disassemble the chip to see the inside.

[peter-h]

The vendor is sort of disputing this, saying they checked it against Maxim PCNs etc. Well, any counterfeiter will do the same, surely

[mon2]

We have used the MAXIM parts including this one in the past. Love the selectable options. Recently have some feedback to Analog to morph the next gen of similar devices and asked for the same feature set.

MAX3089ESD+ is currently in stock @ Mouser. Scoop them up and move on.

We recently were stung with fake Pericom PCIe switches - vendor was in denial. Each non-working board had the fake Pericom switch reworked with one from DK / Mouser - PCBA worked immediately. About a $3k loss.

Sick of the virus. Sick of Putin. Sick of these fakes and Win-Source rip off pricing. Also b*tched to TI about their lack of proper support for parts. By the time we receive an alert, minutes later, the inventory is gone. They reported they are building 2 new fabs to reduce this lead time by 2nd half of 2022.

[peter-h]

I have designed-out the MAX3089 (and all other Maxim parts) from everything we make but on this one product we can't (easily).

The lesson learnt is to test every chip from a 2nd level disti. I narrowly avoided a far bigger disaster with this. Spot the fake

The US vendor, which we luckily had a credit account with, was absolutely furious that we didn't accept these, cancelled our account immediately, but paid for the return shipment before they issued the credit note. Such arrogance... The package was just a lead frame, no silicon, and the lead frame was about 0.3mm too big.

[peter-h]

How does one prove it is fake, if there is a silicon chip inside?

The vendor says they need a "report".

Maxim are extremely difficult to contact. Here in Europe, they removed any means of contact by email or phone.

[mon2]

Maxim is now owned by Analog. Best to contact Analog for any level of support.

A key concern is if you sourced the parts from outside their authorized distributors, they may not care to assist. They will certainly have the tools to x-ray the device(s) to compare against a known good component.

[thm_w]

A good CM will have an xray they use to inspect BGA balls.
If you do a lot of business with them they would be willing to xray the two parts side by side.

Otherwise could dissolve the package away and take photos.
Or compare various pin resistances, if any are obviously wrong (like pin 1 and 2 should be shorted together, etc.).

Here is one company: https://www.smtcorp.com/counterfeit-detection

[peter-h]

I got onto Maxim to ask if that part is one of theirs, and got this back:

Following Case CAS-194583-F8Y0F6 has been closed.
Status: Closed
Case Number:  CAS-194583-F8Y0F6
Case Subject:   MAX3089CSD non-working batch of 900

Great

[peter-h]

Date code confirmed fake by Maxim USA.

[mon2]

Date code confirmed fake by Maxim USA.

Ok. So this is your proof. Now show this to the vendor that supplied the fake parts.

At the very least, post the full details of your supplier so others can avoid them in the future. If anything like some of our 'traders', they have multiple names and are located in separate groups in cubicles. One contact did not appreciate the fact that we found around 4 alias company names for the same address in Wuhan.

How did you pay for these goods ? Credit card ? Phone your CC company and voice this complaint about fake & counterfeit merchandise.

If the parts were sourced by your CM - it is THEIR responsibility to make it right.

If you purchased / paid through Alibaba - they have avenues to deal with such cases. The proof from the factory is all that should be required to settle this case.

[48X24X48X]

@peter-h, if you don't mind answering non-related question.
Where did you get those green soldermask with yellow silkscreen PCB made?
I always wanted this color but tried once in 2011 with PCBCart. It was a disaster as none of the yellow was actually visible.
They remake with a white silkscreen at the end. No one else seems to be offering this unless it's a super premium arrangement.
Hope you can get back some money for the fake chips.

[peter-h]

That pic of the fake Hitachi CPU is from about 10 years ago. The PCBs were UK sourced, so probably chinese Nowadays I buy only chinese PCBs; on the whole china is still usable for that, for mechanical/machined parts, and for moulded cables.

The clearest notation I have seen is black on white background. Yes; it costs a bit more.

I am not going to name the "2nd tier disti" the fake Maxim chips came from; well not yet. We are still negotiating for a refund of our rework cost on ~1k populated boards, which works out at £1 per chip to replace. Plus of course the chip itself. If they don't play ball, I will name them. Pity because we used them for many years. They just got burnt by whoever they got them from.

I asked Maxim for a list of MAX3089 valid date codes.

[Mangozac]

I asked Maxim for a list of MAX3089 valid date codes.

They're probably unlikely to provide such information, as it would help counterfeiters to know valid ranges they should be using.

[peter-h]

You were right, of course

The wider issue is that one has to be bloody careful assembling 1000 (or more!) boards these days.