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TMP117: Manufacturing date

Danilo A.
Mastermind 24705 points
Part Number: TMP117

Hi Team,

Our customer had developed a temperature monitoring solution using the TMP117 chip. They are monitoring some laboratories and pharma facilities and are required to have NIST traceability to each individual sensor. They are storing the individual sensor IDs on the application. Our customer would like to know if we have an automated way to access the manufacturing date of the chip? Do we have a procedure on how to access the manufacturing code? 

I understand that the top mark of the device shows the manufacturing date code, but can we access the information from the EEPROM. I was thinking of manually saving the manufacturing date code written on the top mark to the EEPROM but is there an automated process?   

Regards,

Danilo

  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 35835 points

    Hi Danilo,

    The NIST data stored in TMP117 EEPROM can't be traced without referencing it to internal TI manufacturing records. At this time, we don't have automated lookup (either for ourselves or for customers.) We are using the data for investigation of customer returns, as needed, on a case-by-case basis.

    thanks,

    ren

  • 0 in reply to Ren Schackmann
    TI__Mastermind 24705 points

    Hi Ren,

    Thank you for your response. We have received this feedback from our customer,

    This does not safes the issue at all. If you are selling a nist traceable sensor it has to be traceable. The answer is basically "it is not traceable."

    Regards,

    Danilo

  • 0 in reply to Danilo A.
    TI__Guru* 90906 points

    Danilo - 

    We have an FAQ on the NIST topic that can be requested from here: https://www.ti.com/licreg/docs/swlicexportcontrol.tsp?form_id=312567&prod_no=NIST-TEMPERATURE&ref_url=asc_sensing_sensing_ths 

    In the FAQ doc (in the zip file that you will download), you will find: 

    Does TI provide unique traceability certificates for each device?
    a. To keep costs low for customers, TI does not provide the measurement uncertainty of an individual device, but does provide a warranty for each device.

    b. For passive sensors such as RTDs or thermistors, individualized calibration certificates are necessary to track the uncertainty of the device. With TI’s ability to trim the measurement error of each device in production, individualized certificates are unnecessary and TI warrants each device to conform to its respective datasheet specification limits.

    What is traceability?
    a. Metrological traceability: property of a measurement result whereby the result can be related to a reference through a documented unbroken chain of calibrations, each contributing to the measurement uncertainty (International vocabulary of metrology)
    b. For products listed in the traceability letter, all devices shipped are tested on equipment that is calibrated by an accredited lab that complies with ISO/IEC 17025 policies and procedures using NIST traceable reference standards. (this is what Ren is referring to - we do have the manual ability to go look up, and it is TI policy to have all our test equipment calibrated yearly to the ISO17025 standard, which is all that is really required at the component level)

  • 0 in reply to Danilo A.
    Prodigy 10 points

    Hmm: I think that we have a different view of traceability, 

    If I have a part from TI I do not know when it was manufactured, so I do not know what equipment set was used to establish NIST compliance. Your position is basically "trust us". When we started this development we were told in this forum that TI did not have automatic traceability, but if we sent a request in Via fax or email with the ID of the parts you would be able to provide that as an interim solution, after which TI was going to develop an API into the manufacturer DB so this process could be automated. Based on that communication we developed this NIST solution. Now we have customers for this your position is "trust us" we keep all the records, but they are not accessible to you. The people who inspect medical facilities insist on changing the devices every 2 years to stay in cal. I understand that that is not supported by the data but we do it anyway. 

    The traceability needs to be the same way; you collect the data and store it electronically. You should make this data available as you indicated you would do when this device was launched, It will cost only to develop an API, not to really a recurring expense, 

    Very disappointed at these arm-waving responses. 

  • 0 in reply to Rupert Prince
    TI__Guru* 90906 points

    Dear Rupert - 

    These are not complete end user products. If you look into the standards for medical grade thermometers (which is usually why this comes up, and why we made the FAQ and the letter that comes with it), you will see that they intend for device manufacturers to test whole system and trace it as you imagine - but not down to the component level, as layouts and and specific implementation details can impact the sensor measurement. 

    We are not asking you to trust us - we rigorously test our parts (using industry standard protocols) and we take every single report of an issue with any device seriously and investigate to root cause, whatever that is, and replace if we are found to be in error. The trust you (should or might) have in Texas Instruments is built on the quality, reliability and long life of our products - its something we expect to earn and keep (and this is not hand or arm waving).