Component Trends: A Little More Volatility in September

Lead times and prices in the electronics components industry saw a little more movement in September than in prior months, according to Avnet’s latest Market & Technology Trends report. Pricing of analog components, discretes, logic and memory inched up in the semiconductor market while in IP&E, only military interconnect prices increased.

Lead times are increasing for discrete components among multiple suppliers on multiple packages including SOT23, DPAK, D2PAK, SOT404, SOT428, LFPAK, SOT669, SOT1023, SOT1205 and SOT1210, Avnet reports. ON Semi is increasing capacity by 25 percent in 2014 and expects the majority of lead times to improve in Q3; with the exception of SMA/B, DPAK 2 W, and SOT23, which are expected to improve in Q4. NXP is bringing on additional capacity in Q2 and Q3 and is expecting easing toward the end of Q3 on DPAK, D2PAK, SOT404 and SOT428. Remaining packages will ease in Q4 for NXP. Vishay has also seen extended lead times on several products, but it appears they have stabilized.

Memory – never the most stable of markets – saw a lot fluctuation in September, Avnet product experts report. Since only four to five OEMs drive 90 percent of demand, support can be weak for devices not used by those top customers. Samsung has exited all SRAM products, and affected customers should look to GSI, Cypress, ISSI and Renesas for full support on these families.

DDR-3 remains the design sweet spot from 1 to 4 Gb, and prevailing support is for the DDR3L / 1.35 V option which retains 1.5 V compatibility. Buyers should expect allocation and constrained delivery for 2014 and have forecasts and backlog in place. DDR4 components are now shipping at 4 Gb density, Avnet reports, and modules are now sampling in various form factors, including RDIMM, SODIMM, and UDIMM.

The distributor is seeing increasing allocation on mobile or LP DRAM: LPDDR and LPDDR2 in particular are in strong demand. Vendors are increasing production on LPDDR2 products; still, lead times are increasing and buyers can expect seasonal demand to increase 2H 2014. LPDDR2 parts should be chosen carefully, Avnet warns, as not all configurations and packages are well supported. Support for LPDDR2 with industrial temperature range is limited and designers should exercise caution. Micron is exiting is lower density LP-SDRAM devices, but buyers can look to ISSI for replacements.

Lower density MLC based cards are also increasingly difficult to source, the distributor said, due to EOL of lower density NAND chips. MicroSD is increasingly popular as an embedded storage option.

In interconnect; Micro D-Sub Mil-C-83513 prices are increasing by approximately 2 percent; however lead times are stable. Circular connectors are also seeing a modest price increase of about 2 percent for Mil-C-38999, Mil-C-83723, and Mil-C-26482.