[Amps] "Refurbished" BLF188XR's on eBay?

[Greg Wasik]

 Jim

Be careful with these. They are all from China it seems. I have read about
someone trying one of the re-furbs and it failed at high power. Someone
else mentioned that there are hundreds (if not a thousand) bonding wires
that make up the internals a real device. My guess is that these re-furbs
probably have enough re-furbed bonding wires to make the device appear to
work with in a low current test, but can't handle anything higher

Also a way to tell a possible fake is to look at the tiny notches that are
on the drain tabs.There have been fakes that don't have these notches and
sellers on Ebay sometimes show a photo of the device that is only looking
at it from the gate tab side. Or they show it only in an ESD bag..  Walk
away immediately...

Greg
K1YW

On Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 3:37 PM Jim Barber <barberaudio at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm seeing a good number o "refurbished" BLF188XR's up for sale on eBay.
>
> What does "refurbished" mean? They look like new NXP devices, but for $108
> USD I doubt it - unless they're surplus or fall-outs?
>
> If I knew they were genuine, I'd probably buy a few.
>
> 73,
> Jim N7CXI
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