As the semiconductor demand continues to outstrip supply, industries across the world are severely affected by semiconductor shortages. In this article, Ken Greenwood, Technical Sales Manager, Rochester Electronics sheds light on how businesses can adopt alternative sourcing methods for continued semiconductor availability.
The current Semiconductor market shortages are widespread. Very few manufacturers and product families have been spared the extended lead-times and even allocation.
Whilst the Automotive market is leading the charge to secure supplies because lean supply chains have met a demand upswing and supply constraints, all other market sectors are or will also become affected.
The customer is under a huge amount of pressure to guarantee supply, and typically grey market or unauthorised sources are seen as the only solution. However, a limited group of authorised after-market suppliers offer risk-free sourcing, and additional options, to keep customer’s lines running.
Most semiconductor manufacturers authorise a few selected partners to manage their surplus active stocks during times of plenty, and in some instances also take control of all material after last-time-ship. As the market moves from surplus to deficit, these authorised stocks are an essential buffer to help Customers avoid line-stops. They can provide:
- Instant stock of active parts – typically older date-code – but all backed by the original manufacturers and stored to AS6496 standards
- Product is supplied with full warranties and guarantees
- As a 100% authorised source of supply, anti-counterfeiting standards that apply to independent suppliers such as AS6171 and AS6081, are NOT required
- Alternatives include:
- Discontinued stock from other historically approved suppliers.
- Different temperature grades.
- Different speed grades
- Different packages
- Older die iterations or build versions (e.g., plating stds., gold instead of copper bond-wire etc.)
Reverting to a previous design or making minor design modifications (which do not trigger a full system re-qualification) can often be the only alternative to a line stop.
In addition, a small group of companies are authorised to continue building many old semiconductor product families after the original manufacturer’s EOL. Products are built using original known-good-die; are tested using the original test processes; and are even marked with the original part number.
Where Customers are struggling to build current products, some are re-starting the production of older designs or extending the service-lives of product in the field, in order to fulfil market demands.
About Rochester Electronics
Rochester Electronics is the world’s largest continuous source of semiconductors–100% Authorized by over 70 leading semiconductor manufacturers.
With Supplier relationships going back 40 years, Rochester has over 15 billion devices in stock encompassing more than 200,000-part numbers, providing the world’s most extensive range of end-of-life (EOL) semiconductors and broadest range of active semiconductors.
As a licensed semiconductor manufacturer, Rochester has the capability to produce over 20,000 device types. With 12 billion+ die in stock, Rochester has the capability to manufacture more than 70,000 device types.
Rochester offers a full range of manufacturing services including Design, Wafer Processing, Assembly, Test, Reliability, and IP Archiving providing single solutions through to full turnkey manufacturing, enabling faster time-to-market.
Rochester is the Semiconductor Lifecycle Solution. No other company compares to the breadth of Rochester’s product selection, value-added services, and manufacturing solutions.
With direct sales and support staff in all major markets, complemented by a network of regional and global authorized channel partners, we aim to meet your needs over the phone or via our e-commerce platforms anytime, anywhere.
To learn more visit: www.rocelec.com
Company: Rochester Electronics
