Mitigating Supply Chain Obsolescence: Exploring the Semiconductor Manufacturing Puzzle

Solutions for long-term component availability There are many pieces to any semiconductor product “puzzle” that can result in obsolescence. These pieces range from business revenue to any one of the subcomponents that compose semiconductor products, such as foundry process technologies, packages, substrate or lead frames, test platforms, or design resources. The puzzle pieces often include the overall corporate or market focus for any given semiconductor company. Market foci may change over time for a semiconductor company, even while a long-term system company, such as a customer, may not alter its own product focus. Understanding long-term availability risks with any product selection, the part numbers offered by original component manufacturers, go far beyond the bill of materials (BOM) health reports provided by the various commercially available tools.