How is Chipageddon affecting you?

[SilverSolder]

[...]
What was the cycle again?
Tantalum in 2010, Discrete parts in 2015, MLCCs in 2018, ICs in 2020. So I'm guessing 2023 will be connectors and then resistors or batteries later.

I'm looking forward to having better alternatives to lithium batteries.  I hope the transition doesn't cause a shortage.  Spoke to someone the other day making flexible paper fuel cells, doing 1000/day now, planning for new machine that could make 1 million in 8 hours.

I asked if it is a fire hazard, their response was, no, you can cut them in half and they still work, you can even eat them.

If that won't get you going in the morning, nothing will! 

[Black Phoenix]

China Says It Has Taken U.S. Semiconductor Rules to WTO

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-says-it-has-taken-u-s-semiconductor-controls-to-wto-11670885619

In case anyone can't read because of the paywall, here the archive version - https://archive.vn/VJeoi

China’s Ministry of Commerce said Monday it had filed a complaint against the U.S. at the World Trade Organization in response to new controls from Washington on semiconductor trade with China, describing the action as a response to trade protectionism.

Beijing will use the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism to challenge U.S. export controls on products such as chips to China to defend its rights and interests, its Ministry of Commerce said in a statement posted to its website.

The complaint was initially filed by China, but friendly nations such as Switzerland and Norway are among the complainants. The U.S. said it strongly rejected the panels’ “flawed interpretation and conclusions,” and hinted it would appeal the decision. The U.S. also said the WTO panel have no authority to review national security issues.

[tom66]

WTO is basically owned by the US.  It's theatre.

[nigelwright7557]

As a seller of Arduino stuff... Pro Micros from China (ATMega32U4) have basically doubled in price, that's if the vendor actually has them rather than just saying they have them.

I have ordered a few IC's from Ali Express and a few days after ordering I get a message saying order has been cancelled.

[MT]

I have ordered a few IC's from Ali Express and a few days after ordering I get a message saying order has been cancelled.

You are very lucky.

[SiliconWizard]

Anyway, the shortage seems to be easing indeed. A number of parts are starting to reappear in reasonable quantities.
Whether it's just temporary or not, I don't know.
And, whether it's a good sign or not - unfortunately, I strongly suspect it is just recession rearing its ugly head.
But fact is, I can actually get parts at the moment.

[tom66]

It's not temporary (well - not on any reasonable timescale).  You can see most parts are legitimately coming back into stock.

The biggest headache is still FPGAs, SoCs and anything at high process nodes.  For instance, it's still very hard to get anything made by Samsung on the ~40-65nm nodes (Spartan-6 at 45nm I believe, Microsemi Igloo2 FPGA's at 65nm).

However, in other areas, I think what we're seeing is that inventories at buyers have filled up, and combined with a reduction in demand due to inflationary pressures, it's led to the market normalising somewhat.

We are still taking the precautionary approach and buying enough stock well before any order is made, but we're no longer panicking around redesigning things to fit different parts on.  We can usually get what we need within a few months, if we have to go to component brokers.

It's as most forecasts projected: shortages in '20 and '21, some slow return to normal in '22 and almost normal by '23.  Probably by '24 it will be an unpleasant memory and almost everything in stock.  Just in time for the recession to end!

[AndyC_772]

I've spent the whole day ordering parts for a short production run. It's weird what's available and what's not.

I can get any passives I like, which wasn't the case during the great capacitor shortage a few years back. Of course, it helps that they're generic enough that I can choose from different suppliers, but even odd values in 0.1% were readily available.

(As an aside, is it new that Digi-key now only do full reels, or 1+ qty pricing which is dramatically higher, and nothing in between? It makes no sense to buy, say, a strip of 100 resistors from them, when Mouser etc still do price breaks at reasonable quantities for prototyping).

Some very simple parts like connectors are still out of stock. My favourite 2.5mm JST crimp headers had to come from LCSC, whom I regard as something of a last resort due to their shipping costs and the fact that they're non-franchised.

Other parts, which I expected to be unavailable, actually were. STM32F407, for example. Yes, really - there are a few parts you can actually buy, in quantity and from multiple sources. Hurrah!

No such luck for the TI ADC I needed, though. Their own web store showed 360 in stock, but they'd mysteriously vanished by the time I tried to checkout 30 of them. Thanks, TI, that's another design I'm migrating to a competitor without a moment's hesitation.

Power supplies, displays - not a problem, at least in the small quantities I needed. Discrete semiconductors, no issue, except for ESD diodes which have been particularly troublesome this last year and still seem in short supply.

Bottom line: I'm still having to do a redesign of one board, but it's a pretty minor one... swap a TI part for a Microchip, who seem to have kept at least some parts flowing this whole time (except for certain whole ranges of PICs, but that's a gripe for another day).

[Mangozac]

How are you guys going with getting stocks of SMD electrolytic capacitors? They have been almost as bad as ICs these past 6 months.

[SilverSolder]

Top tip:   the Baltic Dry Index measures the cost of shipping goods worldwide.   When the index goes up, it means the economy is on the boil and stuff is being shipped in massive quantities - demand very high.  It is quite a good proxy indicator for how the world economy is doing.

There seems to be some correlation between the index and the chip shortage...   and also with the increased availability we are seeing now.

[MT]

Foxconn goes to India

[SiliconWizard]

Oh, India is going to be USA's next target.

[tom66]

Today we ordered almost 100 individual lines for a prototype run, and absolutely everything will be ready in time as it was in stock.  We have ordered things to be delivered in January from a BOM conceived in December.  Miracles happen.   

The design was built around avoiding the hardest to source parts, but even then a few TI and NXP parts made it on to the design and those have been historically difficult to source.  However, we are still avoiding TI for SMPS as it seems there is still great uncertainty there.  No horrible compromises - a few parts here and there hard to get but the alternatives were more or less fine.

[BravoV]

Oh, India is going to be USA's next target.

Thats the wrong narrative, more suitable one is, USA will bring and try to enforce "freedom" to India.   

[SilverSolder]

Oh, India is going to be USA's next target.

According to Pope Francis:  “[...] What is happening in Ukraine is terrifying,” he said, adding that he fears the conflict will not end soon. “Let’s not forget this. There are many hands stirring up the war pot. It is global. I think war is waged when an empire begins to weaken. And when there are weapons to be used, tested and sold. There is a great deal at stake,” he said."

...He didn't say which empire he was talking about!  ...

[SilverSolder]

I think moving chip manufacturing to India is a really good idea it is certainly a well secured nation by the sheer number of people that are there and it will help those in poverty to rise up and shake the dust off.

That is true.

We need to spread the wealth a little, instead of having it concentrated in a few global hotspots that end up attracting way too much attention.

[MT]

Eben Upton on the chip shortage, uses the toilet paper hoarding argument analogy, a bit questionable to use that i argue.

[Ed.Kloonk]

Eben Upton on the chip shortage, uses the toilet paper hoarding argument analogy, a bit questionable to use that i argue.

 

It's a great metaphor for what people are doing with all these PIs laying around. May as well wipe your arse with them.

[MT]

Eben Upton on the chip shortage, uses the toilet paper hoarding argument analogy, a bit questionable to use that i argue.

It's a great metaphor for what people are doing with all these PIs laying around. May as well wipe your arse with them.

Rasp-Berry Pain In the arse! 

[SiliconWizard]

Nothing is real
And nothing to get hung about
Raspberry fields forever!

[Ed.Kloonk]

Nothing is real
And nothing to get hung about
Raspberry fields forever!

Raspberry to you too!


 

[tom66]

I know a few companies who use the Pi - either in Compute Module form or as a SBC - inside their products.  I can absolutely believe they have warehouses full of these because without them, they're screwed.

[Ranayna]

Networking equipment made by HPE still has atrocious delivery times.

We just got new estimations for stuff we ordered this year. Some stuff still takes longer than 12 months to deliver. We actually may have to delay a move because we may not get the switches for the new building in time. 

[Mangozac]

I know a few companies who use the Pi - either in Compute Module form or as a SBC - inside their products.  I can absolutely believe they have warehouses full of these because without them, they're screwed.

I know a few such companies who didn't/weren't able to stock up and they are screwed! They're now scrambling to port to Chinese alternatives but not without a lot of headache.

[jmelson]

Need to make some more boards that use the Xilinx XC3S50AN-4TQG144C FPGA with internal serial EPROM.  I used to buy these for $13 - 15 each in small quantity from Digi-Key.  Nobody in the US seems to have stock.  I found a few brokers that want $70 - $110 each now.  YIKES, that's some inflation!
Jon