Insights on manufacturers you may want to keep as extra inventory

As an independent distributor AERI has a bird’s eye view on which products are most difficult to find at any given time. There are many brands that go on and off of allocation based on typical supply and demand cycles, but there are a handful manufacturers that are exceptionally prone to creating headaches for our customers due to higher rates of obsolescence and, what seems to be, a lack of visibility of demand and/or capability of manufacturing product at a proper pace.

We thought it would be helpful to share our insights on those manufacturers with you in order that you may keep a little extra inventory at all times, whether it is on your shelf or your supplier’s. AERI can keep buffer stock for you as long as a year without payment until it ships, making it a no brainer to stock up on some of these products.

Altera

Analog Devices

Cypress

Freescale

Infineon

IDT (Integrated Device Technology)

Intel

Lattice

Marvell

Micron

Microchip Technology

NXP

STMicroelectronics

Texas Instruments

Xilinx

We have added comments about each brand below with some potential reasons we believe they are often hard-to-find. If any of these brands are on your bill of materials you should seriously consider having AERI purchase some buffer stock for you to make sure that your production lines keep moving.  

Altera

Altera was a very popular device used in many manufacturer’s designs. Intel acquired Altera in 2015. Their devices were primarily FPGAs making them very customizable. There is a lot of excess in the market, but a lot of it has already been programmed, therefore unusable. 

Analog Devices

Analog Devices are at the top of the list of our customer’s most common hard-to-find electronic components. We receive more requirements for them than almost any other brand. We recommend you keep a healthy buffer stock on Analog Devices at all times.  

Cypress Semiconductor

Cypress was purchased by Infineon in April of 2020. Cypress has always been at the top of the most difficult to find parts list, but the acquisition, especially at the beginning of COVID, created an even greater supply vs. demand problem.  

Freescale

Freescale, particularly their products destined for automotive and aerospace products, have been especially difficult to find. The transition to the larger wafer sizes by all of the chip fabricators and the hesitance of auto manufacturers to use the new wafer technology, has created a problem for the entire automotive industry.

Infineon

Infineon is another provider of chips used in the automotive and aerospace industry and has found themselves in a similar dilemma as Freescale and NXP with the transition to larger wafer sizes. Many of the products are experiencing shorter lead times, but their struggles to keep up with the automotive demand affected many of their other more modern products lead times during the shortage as well. 

IDT (Integrated Device Technology)

IDT was another company purchased near the start of the COVID pandemic, this one by Renesas Electronics. The transition of leadership was likely a challenge with all of the health restrictions in place and crazy demand fluctuations.

Intel

Intel is one of the few companies that actually makes a lot of their own wafers, which would lead you to believe that they would have fewer supply and demand issues. Even though, at AERI we find that Intel parts are one of the more sought after hard to find parts. This may be due to OEMs continuing to use many of Intel’s old designs for  periods of time beyond their last time buy dates.

Lattice

Lattice, which produces many MCUs and FPGAs, has secured themselves as an integral supplier in custom semiconductor markets. Many of their products are specifically designed for customizable products, making it difficult for them to keep a lot of readily available inventory for so many different part numbers.

Marvell

Marvell has heavily invested in the emerging technology markets, of which many are booming. Maybe their focus on leading edge technology is the reason why, at AERI, we receive so many obsolete requirements for Marvell Technology. If you have any products you are concerned about becoming obsolete, AERI can purchase them on your behalf and hold them on the shelf until you need them.

Micron Technology

Micron is focused on memory products, which almost every electronic product is hungry for these days. The demand for memory will continue to grow, keeping Micron’s sales strong. Throughout the years Micron has been one of our customer’s most sought after hard to find parts. 

Microchip Technology

Microchip Technology parts are the most sought-after by our customers. They have been difficult to procure through authorized distribution. Microchip was the first company to send out an official shortage notice to its customers early in 2021. They continue to have some of the longest lead times for many of their products.     

NXP

NXP is another brand that automakers heavily designed into their products. For that reason, NXP was also caught off guard in 2020 after automakers shut off their orders then shortly thereafter demanded large quantities. We have been able to help many OEM’s find the NXP parts they need to keep their production lines moving.   

STMicroelectronics

Many of STMicro’s MCU’s still have lead times over a year. This brand brings in a steady amount of hard to find requirements from our OEM’s to AERI. Our ability to scour the world to locate STMicroelectronics parts has enabled AERI relieve a lot of our customer’s pain.

Texas Instruments

TI, another mega brand which has been around since the dawn of semiconductor technology, continues to be difficult to find for many of AERI’s customers. One of the reasons many of our customers need help locating TI products is due to so many part numbers being obsolete. TI has been making semiconductors since 1954. We can often source TI parts designed in the 1970’s for our aerospace and military customers who are not able to accept any substitutions.

Xilinx

Xilinx parts are very complicated and used for specific applications. For that reason it seems as though Xilinx does not make many of each product type. If a design becomes sought after there may not be enough of them to go around. Therefore it is a good idea purchase some buffer stock on all of your Xilinx parts. AERI can buy them and store them for you at our facility so you don’t need to.