Shulou(Shulou.com)05/31 Report--

Supply problems in the semiconductor industry have affected the pricing and availability of some hardware components that we are familiar with and love. Several billion-dollar investments in manufacturing capacity have been announced to not only alleviate the problem but also ensure sustainable growth in the industry in the coming years.

The problem is that capacity expansion itself requires a large number of semiconductors, which means that expanding production in the future means limiting supply today. Another problem is the lack of enough professionals in the field, which has led to an increase in poaching and even prompted Intel to create a multibillion-dollar fund aimed at attracting and retaining technical talent.

TSMC's planned Arizona plant has faced construction delays due to a shortage of construction workers. Leading chip tool makers such as ASML and applied materials have warned customers that the average waiting time for new orders is now about 18 months. As a result, Intel's $80 billion plan to make silicon junctions for semiconductors in Europe will also face delays, which sounds reasonable.

ASML has warned that its own suppliers are having trouble increasing production and that the company faces shortages of everything from lenses, valves and pumps to microcontrollers, engineering plastics and electronic modules. This also affects the substrate, which is the element that the chip needs to enter the printed circuit board. According to the chairman of Unimicron, the lead time for substrates has increased from 12 months to 18 months in 2021 to 30 months at the time of this writing.

Delays and increased delivery times will make it difficult for small businesses and startups to expand their electronic designs, which may delay the launch of consumer-oriented products or lead to further shortages. In addition, we have seen problems caused by supply constraints and delays in cheaper, lower-margin electronics-AMD has spent more than a year reducing the price of its Zen 3 design to less than $299, while Ryzen 3 and Ryzen have a relatively poor five lineup to launch Zen microarchitecture for the first time. The same is true for mid-range and entry-level discrete GPU products-while users are grappling with stratospheric prices driven by cryptocurrency mining demand and the unethical behaviour of scalpers taking advantage of the situation.

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