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Old article May 5th of this year, which in that industry is a long time. Nevertheless the situation since did actually get worse as predicted. Not only is it c
by eande 5y ago
Old article May 5th of this year, which in that industry is a long time.
Nevertheless the situation since did actually get worse as predicted. Not only is it chip shortage we should call it component shortage. A standard 10k 0406 package resistor is sold out around the world. Many high quality, high density capacitor you can't get. The same goes for the standard semiconductor parts like diodes, MOSFET or TVS.
Semiconductor sales rep give you now +50 weeks lead time for the many ICs meaning no real forecast at this point.
They generally tell you 2022 will be tough maybe Q4 will ease up.
Many of the major semi companies are running at fairly high capacity, but supporting elements like IC package build capacity, sometimes materials can't keep up as well.
We looked at some boards to redesign, but when you are short hundreds of parts it gets nearly insurmountable to manage a hardware redesign. Interesting and challenging allocation period, definitely worse than 2003-2005.
- wereHamster 5y agoIs the shortage of common components (such as the 10k 0406 resistor you mention) due to: increased demand that can't be met due to unavailable capacity or because the manufacturers scaled production down during the past year and now there is no capacity to scale it back up? Or because supply chain shortages that feed the fabs (raw materials)?
- baybal2 5y agoPassives are actually quite quick to produce. I think it's a good proof that a few giant distributors in China keep buying, and flushing them down the drain.
- q-big 5y ago> Passives are actually quite quick to produce. I think it's a good proof that a few giant distributors in China keep buying, and flushing them down the drain. What are these immense amounts of passives used for?
- CompuHacker 5y agoEverything, but I think they are suggesting that the market for them is being suppressed by hording or destruction of product.
- azinman2 5y agoWait why would anyone buy up a large percentage of something to only destroy it?
- the-dude 5y agoTo hinder competitors? To avoid storage costs?
- londons_explore 5y agoApple has been known to buy all of the worldwide supply of a component to destroy it, delaying competitors plans.
- lotsofpulp 5y agoSource?
- jazzyjackson 5y agoI don't think there is one quite so nefarious, the tale I usually hear is that Apple buys out the manufacturing capacity, say, on 8GB ram chips - and then its competitors can't find 8GB chips for their own phones, and have to offer a meager 6GB of RAM instead. (If you think about it, doubling your RAM just so manufacturers don't have the capacity to supply your competitors is pretty ruthless and genius) Googling aroubd I see other stories of Apple buying all available capacity of 5nm manufacturing or glass or sapphire for smartwatch screens etc, here's one source for RAM tho (2009): https://appleinsider.com/articles/09/02/18/apple_buying_up_available_flash_ram_supplies_for_next_iphone https://appleinsider.com/articles/09/02/18/apple_buying_up_a...
- phkahler 5y agoWith consolidation, some of the less common component values are being discontinued. I would imagine the same may be happening with standard values in larger sizes and 0406 is kinda big these days. Longer term this shutting out of companies not on the leading edge will result in other changes. Components fabricated integral to the PCB being one such change.
- jiggawatts 5y ago> Components fabricated integral to the PCB being one such change. I hadn't heard about this, and it sounds interesting. Do you have any references?
- phkahler 5y agoI only saw it in a presentation from a high end board house. And then only for limited use and probably wide tolerances? But the idea is still in my head and makes some sense. Imagine something like a silk screen laying down passives. No, they didnt say how they do it, that was just my thought.
- jiggawatts 5y ago(Layperson's opinion) I get the impression looking at the electronics industry from the outside over decades, that techniques seem to be moving from "level to level". That is, you now see single silicon chips made like entire clusters of computers, with on-board network connections between surprisingly independent cores and modules. It's almost like a bunch of silicon chips all within one monoilithic silicon circuit board, with no external wiring. Then, several of these chips are in turn mounted on a physical board that is "just" another silicon wafer, possibly made on a very old node size, something still measured in microns. But nonetheless, it's a full silicon chip in its own right, with high-tech chips riding on top of it like circuit elements. And then the motherboards seem to be miniaturising too. I remember when designers hesitated to use chips with much more than 20 pins because it would need to many traces that were too fine. Now? Thousands of pins are the norm for mainstream processors. Soon? Maybe tens of thousands, or even hundreds, and I wouldn't be surprised if circuit components start getting printed directly into the motherboards, like you said you saw. I remember going into a library and picking up an old edition of Scientific American, from the 1960s I think. It had a full-page ad from Texas Instruments advertising their record-setting integration, because they could pack ten (10!) transistors into a single chip. They had an "actual size" picture in the ad, so you could see for yourself and count all ten transistors. The metal layer wires looked thicker than I've seen on some small PCBs these days, which should blow your mind...
- sytelus 5y agoShortage in supply is everywhere. Even in labor market. While walking around I cannot pass by without a desperate plea for staff needed. I see businesses closing down literally because of shortage of staff. It’s as if half of humans suddenly disappeared and other half decided to consume massively.
- tpmoney 5y agoThe other half doesn't need to consume massively, just at the same rates they always were. When every step along your just in time supply chain is running at 50% capacity, the end output is even lower than 50% capacity.
- londons_explore 5y agoOr... Everyone has decided to consume massively because a lot of people feel rich after COVID (same income, no holidays, travel or social expenses)
- garmaine 5y agoBoth halves are consuming massively thanks to pandemic relief funds and bonus unemployment. Why do you think there’s a labor shortage? You can get paid more money to sit on your ass and order things on Amazon.
- oehtXRwMkIs 5y agoReasonable speculation, but if you look into it you'll see that right now the most popular hypothesis is a lack of fit between job seeking and hiring. Warehouse jobs for example are taking a lot of workers away from other industries right now. The most convincing piece of evidence for this IMO is that if you compare the states that ended relief funds and bonus unemployment early to try to combat this issue with those that let it keep going, there was no statistically significant difference between the two halves of the USA in terms of hiring shortages.
- jeromegv 5y agoWhere in the world are they still paying pandemic relief funds 18 months into the pandemic?
- Animats 5y ago0406 package? That's an odd size, apparently made only by Vishay, and yes, they're out of stock.
- erosenbe0 5y agoIt's likely for low resistance and temperature stable precision current measurement so the package design can contribute to stability. Vishay is a leader in that stuff.
- erosenbe0 5y agoJournalists are clueless. Intel doesn't make 10nm chips that you put in a car or bulldozer or telecom box that has to bake in desert heat. Some of their older process stuff, yes, but not the top.