Counterfeit switching regulator

Nov 05, 2020 5 Replies

So we had a bunch of small power supply boards fabbed and stuffed in Shenzen. The CM (PCBway) said they had all the parts in stock.



When we got the boards, everything worked great till the negative switcher was enabled, at which point it went berserk. I talked about that in another thread a few weeks back. It was strange--we'd used all those parts before with no issues.



I had a chance to investigate a bit more closely, and found that what was supposed to be an AOZ1282CI, a fixed-frequency 450 kHz async buck, was in fact switching at 1.32 MHz. AO makes a quicker version, the AOZ1282CI-1, that runs at 1 MHz, but its specified max is 1.2, and this one's running at 1.32.



Sooo, it looks like somebody over there slipped us the phonus bolonus. (*)



I'll try putting in the real ones and see if that helps.



Cheers



Phil Hobbs



(*) Damon Runyon


Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com

The Chinese seem to specialise in fake regulators for some reason.

Generally clearly visible under X-ray

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Drat. Where _is_ that x-ray microscope I bought at last January's hamfest? Ought to be here under the box of dilithium crystals where I left it....

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com

You don't have an X-ray machine for BGA insprection ?

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Three or four, IIRC. I just can't find them under all these random starship parts. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com

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