Abstract:  The proliferation of counterfeit and unapproved materials is now a recognised, industry-wide concern in electronics manufacturing. Counterfeit material supply often defeats inbound inspection processes and adds real cost as premium, critical components must be sourced directly from the original component manufacturer. The IPC-1782A external traceability standard extension was introduced to eliminate counterfeit materials from the electronics manufacturing supply chain by introducing accountability and responsibility at every stage. The standard advocates the use of distributed consensus combined with tamper-evident, uniquely identifiable labelling to ensure the genuine origin of materials is known, without doubt by all stakeholders. This presentation will focus on the use of Fibrecode, a low cost, highly secure, intrinsic unique identifier that enables the use of anonymous labelling and packaging to authenticate the provenance of materials as they move through an IPC-1782A compliant secure supply chain. Fibrecode uses machine vision to harness the random and unique characteristics of embedded fibres to give physical assets a digital identity that cannot be reproduced or counterfeited.

Bio: Aubrey is an accomplished entrepreneurial Chairman and CEO; his more than 35 years of experience includes working in large multinationals and small company environments. In the early 1980s, as a clinical ultrasonographer, he patented a method for tissue characterization using ultrasound. In 1995, he founded the company Infocell in Ireland and developed a patent for a real-time passenger information system. He was awarded the prestigious Irish Exporter of the Year Award in 2001 and the Irish Business Achievers Award in 2003 for his leadership of Infocell. He holds an honors degree in applied physics and in applied chemistry from Trinity College Dublin and the Technological University Dublin. He has worked in France, the UK, and Ireland in his career to date and is bilingual in French.