Maxim IC frustration - hard to find components

Hello PeteS,

In my cases the usual scenario is that none of the single-source parts makes it, no matter from whom. Whenever possible I try to use standard logic chips, FETs, BJT and passives to do just about anything. There are designs still in production where close to 100 parts could have been replaced with a few chips and only a dozen passives. But I didn't and the clients are happy about it. Typically I never hear any mention of logistics problems again after such re-designs.

It's worse. For example, when I tried to obtain a partial reel of the Infineon FET BSP297 they really blew it. Didn't call back, promised to send samples but failed to do so, etc. It's not that I wanted freebies. I told them I would pay whatever it takes to get them to the US. Well, they lost that design-in and I haven't considered their other offerings since.

The sad thing is that some of them are real technological leaders. Infineon, for example, offers a great selection of hotrod RF transistors, diodes and other useful parts. Truly mouth-watering stuff. But what good does it do if you can't buy them at Digikey and they don't understand how marketing to design engineers works?

Then there is the poor performance of many of their web sites but that's a whole 'nother matter.

Hello Tim,

Which ones would that be? I've not had that happen in the last 20-some years :-)

I would love to use just standard parts all the time, but in what I do now space is a real issue, so I am pushed towards low count solutions. In those cases, I will only use mfrs I can trust (obviously, MAX isn't one of them). I detest single source solutions as much as anyone - there are just some times I can't evade it.

Infineon is a particularly bad outfit - they only really sell into the Tier 1 market (or so they like to think - who knows - one day you might do a design for a Tier 1 outfit and NOT use their parts).

As to websites - I hear ya. I have a list that rates them as 'good' to 'should be taken out and shot' - might be amusing to start a thread on that.

Cheers

PeteS

Hello Pete,

Just ran the BOM again on one of my tinier designs. 64 parts on about

That's just the thing. They believe they can forecast what will be Tier-1 in the distant future. They can't. Sometimes we design stuff that looks like medium volumes. Then sales take off and it remains in production until the cows come home. Getting onto the BOM at that stage is next to impossible for any manufacturer unless they agree to very painful rebates. I've even had them offer fancy dinners and all that (but politely declined).

Tier-1 preference carries substantial risks. It only takes one large client to drop the ball and there goes the whole apple cart. Then there are layoffs because they failed to groom Tier-2.

In message , dated Mon,

I'll take that onerous duty off your hands at any time. (;-)

Someone once asked me what influence entertainment had (in the days when it was more routine). I said that it didn't have any influence on anything that the Purchasing Department would notice and complain about.

The only influence was that if there was a problem, I'd be inclined to call the supplier (even at a home number if I had one), rather than leave it to the Quality Department to get out the long knives.

They make a serial-out ADC, the '185 I think, that actually meets its specifications -- but then, when we turned that product we revisited the system design so that we could use ADCs that were really only good to 14 bits, and design the Maxim part out.

I wonder what they're going to do after they tank? Get bought by Atmel?

In a fairly recent thread on comp.arch.embedded I stated to the effect of 'my only problem with Maxim is it's Maxim'

;)

Cheers

PeteS

Hello John,

However, in Europe I did like the candy boxes they brought the purchasing guys during Christmas season. Purchasing was nice in that they always informed the engineers to swing by and share.

Hello Tim,

TI makes nice serial-out ADCs. ADS1252 and stuff like that if you need

That story sounds like the Wild West. Hopefully nobody will bring a Glock to the next meeting...

It seems that their external foundry does the obsoleting for them (e.g. MAX038)

Chris

They've just nailed us again. After quoting us 2-month delivery, and the parts finally due soon, they've again slipped the ship date on some 16-bit serial DACs we really, really need. If they run true to form, near the next ship date they'll slip it again. Once they slipped the ship date on a part four times, then discontinued it; that was the MAX9690 comparator. They replaced it with the 9691, the only comparator in the galaxy that has back-to-back diodes across its inputs!

It also looks like an increasing number of Maxim parts are only available direct from Maxim, and are never stocked by distributors. So a potential buffer stock doesn't exist.

John

You have my sympathy. I got caught in the Maxim Fast-EOL cycle about a year ago (a very nice Dallas part) and what little of me was still attached to Maxim got detached at that time.

I did a respin of the board using other techniques and I now won't design in a Maxim part - period. There is nothing they do I can't replicate in other ways, although as mentioned I may need to use a few external parts.That's something I can live with - at least I can always get 0402 precision parts ;)

Cheers

PeteS

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote: (top posting fixed)

So far.

Yup. After decades of treating customers like fools Ford and GM are on the skids, and Chrysler is now a division of Daimler. Drive down the freeway and count the Fords and Chevys, and compare them to the population of Mazdas, Hondas, German cars and Toyotas.

Then deduct the number of Fords that are really Mazdas, and Chevys that are really Toyotas.

Hello Tim,

The question remains: How much more successful could they be if they got their logistics problems licked?

I wonder if they have a bunch of design teams doing what ever chips they think could be interesting on pizza masks to get samples, and then only if they actually get someone big enough to bite they start a real production

-Lasse

Jeff, as you know there are many people on USENET who like projecting their childhood issues by screaming and yelling when someone multiposts. I am sure you aren't one of them. I accidentally had sci.electronics.design twice in my group selection (the other should have been sci.electronics.components), so I had to create another post for sci.electronics.components. Anyone can google my profile and see that I rarely if ever did this before in my many years of USENET posting. Thank you

JeffM wrote:

I suspect that is the closest yet to their business model.

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