Maxim IC frustration - hard to find components

Go to Linear Tech, Nat Semi, or Analog Devices if you want readily available parts. The regional support staff have been really helpful. I've stopped using Maxim due to a fiasco I had with them 5 years ago and due to availability issues of other parts. Great parts if you can get your hands on them!

Ask them about the MAX439 and variants. It was a very unique op-amp at the time. Come to think of it, it's still a unique op-amp. Linear Technology was glad to pick up another $50k in sales from us when Maxim stopped producing the MAX439 due to a process line change. They couldn't figure out how the designer, who was on a very long vacation in Nepal, ever got that part to work.

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Mark

Hello John,

There are lots of display drivers, for example in the Philips PCF series although much of it is now going towards the more popular LCD technology.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

As a former Maxim employee, I did my best to stay out of this thread. However, the MAX7219 was one of the more "entertaining" parts I designed. [As an analog IC designer, doing digital is nice for a change.] I had to fight the powers that be to design it using VLSI's process, rather than our fab. The chip would have been huge in 3um. Not only did the smaller channel length fets help, but the double metal sealed the deal. I designed the power fets in both processes and it just wasn't a contest. [If you look at the die, the power fets are build around the bonding pad for the best resistance to electromigration problems.] The issue was given the usual 3 passes it task to get a chip into production, that would cost a fortune at VLSI. Still, I won on the merits of doing it in the finer geometry process. The chip went through what was nearly a full circuit spice simulation on IIRC a 90Mhz PC. We had a room in what was the old Tech Fed Credit Union building that had a few PCs in it for either long runs or just to be in a place not to be disturbed. The serial I/O plus dual port ram was one simulation, then the rest of the chip was the other simulation. I took at least two weeks of simulation.

The chip worked on the first pass, including passing burn-in, latch-up and ESD. When Maxim got its one 1um process (1.2um I think), I tweaked the chip for that process. It was run along with test patterns to get the bugs out of the process. There is nothing like having a real chip to play with when a process is being developed.

There are a few issues with the part. One is the burn-in test mode. [The part is burned in with all digit drivers being exercise, i.e. dynamic burn-in.] It is mentioned twice in the datasheet, but many people don't read the datasheet carefully. Once you are in burn-in mode, all the leds stay on no matter what you do. I ended up talking to a customer from Australia that spent weeks with apps trying to figure out what was going on with this part as he would get in that mode. Finally the call got bumped up to me, to which I replied "No big deal, you got the part in the burn-in test mode, as shown on page blah blah blah." He was a bit irate as nobody in apps pointed that out. When the datasheet was being written, I tried to get a special section in it warning about the test mode, but that was deemed to be too alarming. You don't want to scare off the customers. The other argument I lost was the designation of "serially interfaced" rather than "serial interface.' Which do you want, good gramar or common engineering speak?

There is also something funky in the serial interface. I don't remember the problem exactly, but it has to do with the chip select not gating the load pulse or something like that. I don't have the datasheet in front of me so I can't recall the exact problem. I noticed the chip is being sold in surface mount, so it was tweaked by someone after I left. Maybe that problem is fixed.

Almost everything I wanted to put in the chip got approved. The exception was the ability to set the intensity of every digit individually. I wanted to use it so that a cursor (blinking digit or different brightness) could be implemented. I did an app note later on how to add a cursor with external parts.

One nice thing about the part is the use of current mirrors to set the peak current via the external resistor. Current feeding the LEDs makes the displays have uniform intensity even if the LEDs don't match well. The analog control was also used in some military apps where NV goggles were used. [The military apps did a combination of PWM and analog to set the intensity.]

I guess you like Japanese food. I do, too :-)

[ ... story how MAX7219 was born ...]

Thanks for sharing this story. It is nice to have direct feedback here from companies, even if it's former employees. I don't know why you left but Maxim could be a great company if they got their hands around some serious logistics problems I (and others) had to face. Maybe they should design less chips or use 3rd party fabs more. The chips I saw were mostly video and PWM related. I really admired their design and the nifty functions they offered. But they were all single-sourced and because my clients could not take delivery of any substantial quantity in time I ended up having to design them all out. The only Maxim part I ever left in a design was a Dallas digital potmeter. Because, to my surprise, it was available.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Jack Gifford doesn't like three things: Phd, MBA, and product engineers. The lack of product engineering is the reason for poor delivery. When I was there, we orphaned only one chip. It was an offline switcher of sorts that was capacitor coupled. Not only did it have problems, but it was deemed kind of dangerous.

Hi,

Just thought I'd add a little vitriol (looks like we have a good amount going already!).

In article ,

I nominate ST, Philips.

A few years ago I was thinking about using a Philips uC and checked out their site. They had some crap "parametric" search that failed to work. After hours, I finally found the part I wanted. I figured I should pass some feedback to Philips and I wrote them (nicely) saying how much difficulty I had finding the part I wanted. I got a very rude response from Philips (a female if it makes a difference) tell me "I had no issues finding this part". Yeah, if you know what part you want...

On the US front I say National and Intersil have crap websites. Intersil blows for needing so much Flash...WTH? Are they pandering to low attention span 5-year olds?

John.

Just curious: What does he like? If you can't generate enough product to fill orders a company isn't going to thrive. When I ran the division of a company my first priority at all times was to make sure that production was humming.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

I sprung for a radio to keep them happy.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

Hello Spehro,

One of our guys said "If I go in there and hear Mr.Bojangles one more time I am going to scream". But that's nothing compared to the schmaltzy stuff they listened to in a German production facility. It could make your toe nails curl.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

I think we all (well, most) agree Maxim has some great parts, and I enjoyed the story above, but great parts is not the issue, as the thread has noted heavily ;)

Cheers

PeteS

The machine shop I occasionally worked at in college had a bunch of old(er) machinists who preferred to listen to country music and Paul Harvey... really drove some of the highly-liberal college students nuts. :-)

Hello Joel,

Ah, my kind of tunes. I like Country. Not the modern stuff but old Americana. And Blues.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Eeeeewwwww

That's almost as bad as Barry Manilow greatest hits for 'animated production'

Cheers

PeteS

I remember listening to Paul Harvey - I was always amused that his tone and pitch did _not_ change during his commercials ;)

Cheers

PeteS

Un bel giorno snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com digitò:

The business strategy of Maxim becomes obvious if you read the list of its distributors:

Most of them are on the east and south-east of Asia. It seems to me that Maxim is becoming a big consulting company that works for some big asian cellphone/pda/whatever manufacturers, and sometimes incidentally sells parts also to "normal" people.

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asd

Hello,

My name is Rebecca and I supervise Maxim Dallas Direct, a sales channel from which customers are able to order Maxim & Dallas parts directly. One of the main reasons Maxim Dallas Direct was created was to allow customers to receive pricing and availability from a Maxim Dallas specialist with a vested interest in getting the customer what they want, when they want it. I'm sorry you were led to believe these parts had long lead times, but here is what we currently have available. All units are in stock in the Philippines, 4 days transit directly to you.

DS2745U+ 40 units $1.65 each MAX1724EZK27+ 40 units $2.11 each MAX1522EUT+ 40 units $1.61 each (quote#A1381106) MAX1555EZK+ 40 units $1.34 each

We are moving towards lead free (noted by the + at the end of the part number) so that I what I am quoting (if you have any questions regarding lead free there is a notification on our website at

If any of these are not the exact package type you need or if you would like to order free samples please let me know. For future reference please feel free to call us directly at 888.629.4642 and any sales person can assist you. If you would like to place an order please email snipped-for-privacy@maximhq.com or fax to 800.992.1884. Thank you and I apologize for your frustration.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Graves

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

Hello Rebecca,

Thanks for posting here in the group. Does that direct channel also work for customer with large quantity needs? That's where my clients had the most problems. They could buy a few dozen but when they wanted some reels they pulled a blank (and I had to design the Maxim parts out). Mostly these were PWM and video chips.

A suggestion to upper management at Maxim: Keep track of all inquiries, especially those where customers could not be satisfied with the desired quantities and have walked away.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

really

Ah, you like both kinds of music; Country _and_ Western.

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  Keith

I still listen to him on occasion. His "The Rest of the Story", is often interesting. the commercials start with even numbered pages. ;-)

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  KEith