Dire warning on component lead times

25 November 2020 News

According to the supply chain, Microchip recently issued a notice to its customers, warning that the lead time of some of its devices will be extended from the previous 18 weeks to 54 weeks.

As reported by SemiMedia, in the notice, Microchip asked its key customers to consider ordering now to arrange future deliveries to ensure supply. In addition, Microchip said that larger orders may require additional time.

The SemiMedia news post goes on to say that, according to an insider in the electronic component supply chain, Microchip is not the only supplier with 50 weeks’ lead time. For example, Broadcom’s lead time is more than 50 weeks, and the average lead time of Texas Instruments is about 30 weeks, but some devices have reached 50 weeks.

At present, although the lead time of many other electronic component suppliers has not reached as much as 50 weeks, all of them have been extended. Among them, the average lead time of STMicroelectronics is 20-26 weeks, NXP is about 25 weeks, Renesas is 20-24 weeks, and Toshiba's lead time is about 25 weeks. In addition, the lead time for most of Maxim's devices is 20 weeks, Diodes Inc.'s low-voltage MOSFET is 17-22 weeks, Qualcomm is more than 30 weeks, and Altera's lead time is extended by 6-8 weeks from the original standard lead time.

The insider said that the root causes of the extended lead time are high demand and wafer shortage. Due to the huge investment and time required to increase wafer production, it is estimated that the semiconductor shortage will not be resolved in the short term.

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