Editorial: November 9, 1995

Generally, we don’t cover purchasing issues in EDN, but the current silicon shortage makes the acquisition of semiconductors very much an issue of design. From now until at least the end of 1997, ICs will be in short supply. The reason for this shortage is the phenomenal success designers have had installing electronics in every sort of product, with the possible exception of food. PCs and computers continue to be big consumers of ICs. Add in the incredible growth in communications, automotive, and consumer applications, and you’ve got an insatiable worldwide appetite for semiconductors. The consequence of this success is that you must take device availability into account like never before.

Even large systems companies with long-standing relationships with silicon vendors are going to feel the pinch. To fill the gap, electronic distributors have stepped in, providing supply services they’ve honed to a science. Semiconductor vendors are increasingly turning larger and larger system accounts over to distributors, which further changes the way you buy components for your designs. Distributors, too, are becoming increasingly important for other sorts of electronic components because of shortages across the board in all component categories. The worldwide appetite for all types of electronic components is huge—and growing.

In short, the changes in the supply of electronic parts will change the way you design for the next few years. Performance remains a critical parameter, and you’ve always had to take part availability into account. Now you must make doubly sure that the parts you design into a circuit will be available when you’ll need them—and for as long as you’ll need them.

Note that using custom silicon doesn’t solve this problem for you. There’s a growing worldwide shortage of fab capacity that’s not likely to let up in the near term. It’s sure to affect ASIC availability. Although there are a lot of semiconductor fabs under construction and many more are planned, the increase in fab capacity from these new sites isn’t likely to offset the crunch caused by rapid growth in the various electronic markets until late in this decade.

What all of this means is that you may need to change the way you design. If you’re a stickler for always using the one “best” part for each socket, make sure you are able to get enough of those parts for planned production. Try to create designs that can accommodate as many component substitutions as possible, and explicitly recommend substitute devices as part of your design. Use proprietary component features as sparingly as you can.

Note that I did not recommend that you should stop using these features entirely. If possible, use software and a rich set of features to make your end product unique, instead of depending on specially selected components to provide the extra performance that differentiates your offering from the pack. Those specially selected components could easily become either horribly expensive or simply unavailable in the near future. Above all, be a holistic thinker when it comes to design. There’s more to a component than what’s shown on a data sheet.