Microcontroller X-ray protection from customs  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: vicvicvar
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 22, 2022, 06:24:08 pm
content: Hi All,We have been exporting electronics to another country but the IC's will suffer a permanent failure when the boards are scanned by the X-ray scanner at customs.We have tried placing labels and warnings but ultimately the technician at customs will decide if it proceeds to the x-ray machine.Any recommendations on how we can protect the devices that are damaged by the radiation?Thanks.

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2022, 06:35:47 pm
content: "Will" is a rather high degree of certitude. Are you really that sure?Typical Flash memory is not affected by the levels used for inspection. DRAM for that matter, have put my laptop on standby (not hibernate) through airport check-in plenty of times. Granted they probably use lower levels than the kind for shipping containers.Tim

author: vicvicvar
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 22, 2022, 06:43:35 pm
content: Hi, thanks for your reply.We have sent x5 batches that will sum around x50 boards and they were working when they left the factory. When they arrived to the final destination, after inspected by customs, they microcontroller had to be replaced since it was not recognized.

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2022, 07:10:00 pm
content: Quote from: vicvicvar on September 22, 2022, 06:43:35 pmI find it hard to believe that customs xray inspection has any lasting effect on electronics, there is a crapton of electronics being shipped around the world, if it was damaged by xrays nothing would work

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2022, 07:41:37 pm
content: Seems unlikely but not totally implausible in a country that has old outdated equipment that gives high doses.Maybe send a dosimeter badge along with the products to check.

author: CaptDon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2022, 11:18:52 pm
content: I find it hard to believe 'destroyed' was the correct term. How about 'lost its flash memory programming'. Most memory devices including EEprom, Eprom and Flash do have Xray tolerance specifications. For shit sake, were they using one of the old diathermy machines with the fluorescent screen to look at your boards? We used to blast the hell out of electronic assemblies with an old surplus hospital C-Arm (JACHO dis-allowed their use after a certain date, they were GE and some name with three leters like OSI or something) just to examine the effects from X-ray exposure. Yes, we could alter memory bits, but it took a lot of exposure!!

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2022, 11:29:30 pm
content: Huge amounts of electronics goes through the X-ray scanners at airports. If you travel regularly you may have put the same MCU based device through a scanner hundreds of times. The only time I've even seen a scanner actually damage a piece of electronics it was a very old machine which appeared to damage it by magnetic coupling.

author: uski
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2022, 11:34:26 pm
content: Is there anything, besides mere supposition, that X-rays are the cause of the issue ?I would find it much more plausible that something else from transportation is the cause of the issue, such as vibrations or static electricityThere are literally hundreds of thousands of devices with microcontrollers that go through customs scanning every day. If the failure rate was that high, we would know about it, right ? I am talking about X-ray inspection, not gamma ray sterilization. We are talking about X-ray inspection right ?What microcontroller are we talking about ?

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2022, 11:38:32 pm
content: Quote from: coppice on September 22, 2022, 11:29:30 pmAt a company I used to work for some 20 years ago, they had electronic keyfob dothats to generate access tokens for the VPN. It came with a piece of paper and number to call to explain why it couldn't go through he scanner at the airportbut that was probably all keys in ram

author: ejeffrey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 23, 2022, 12:00:41 am
content: If you attach a debug probe can you dump the flash and see corruption? That would be useful information.

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 23, 2022, 07:20:49 am
content: Quote from: langwadt on September 22, 2022, 07:10:00 pmI can confirm the possibility of damaging Flash-based content. We had a couple of (different) customers who had their SD-cards erased at customs. However those were scanners in some remote 3rd world countries, so presumably outdated technology with way more power than a modern scanner.You might want to try X-ray-safe bags for films (Domke Filmsafe e.g.) - however it's just a lead-padded case, so quite expensive for what it is. Or create some lead plated shipping container with large warnings attached to it, aka "may be opened by customs, DO NOT XRAY content, sensitive electronics".