My MCU is out of stock worldwide?

[Saimoun]

Hi

So I have this project which I hope to sell 1000 units of soon. Many months ago I decided to go with an STM8L151 MCU because it's great hardware with many fonctionality for very cheap!
My aim was for the STM8L151G6U6TR which has everything I need for <$1 per unit (at 1000). But at this point I am happy to get anything which starts with STM8L151 and has at least 32kB of flash memory. Changing the MCU type/brand is really the last resort as it would mean months of work (code) down the drain

I am manufacturing and assembling the electronics in China, and the MCU is really difficult for them to get. I just got a quote from NextPCB saying they can get the STM8L151G6U6TR for $25 per unit. Mouser and Digikey seem out of stock of pretty much any STM8L151.

So I come to you (again  ) for help!
How would you handle such a situation?

Thank you!
Simon

[SMTech]

Octopart shows a few chinese sourcing/brokers with access to stock and right at the bottom of the list is Abacus https://www.abacuselect.com/search/?q=STM8L151G6U6TR&utm_source=octopart who are at least a proper seller you might know.

[Saimoun]

Ok thank you that helps a lot! I wrote to Abascus to hear if they can deliver to Shenzhen

I actually did not know about Octopart - I think I found something similar before but it was only accessible for companies and at a quite high price.
How do you know Abascus is a chinese broker?

[SMTech]

Oh they are not, but I'm pretty sure the other guys on the list are. Abacus are a proper distributor we we use/used at work, not that I get involved in that side of things.

[KL27x]

Thank goodness I saw this thread.

I was barely able to buy enough micros to populate a big PCB order I'm putting in, now. Well, I have shipping confirmation on half the order. I'm still waiting on the other order, but so far, so good.

Lead times are nuts. 1 year lead times?

I wonder if the internet just saved me, or if it creates these shortages by increasing the panic level? I've never seen a shortage on this particular part, before.

[ANTALIFE]

https://www.netcomponents.com/results.htm?d=1&flts=1&t=f&sm=&r=1&lgc=begins&pn1=STM8L151

https://www.netcomponents.com/results.htm?d=1&flts=1&t=f&sm=&r=1&lgc=begins&pn1=STM8L151G6U6TR

[Saimoun]

@SMTech: ok I understand. I do not know any of these so no way to find out if they are china-based. But I'm ok paying a bit more to import it in China anyways, it's nice to see some companies still have some stock!

@KL27x: very interesting! Which micro are you using, and where did you order it from?

@ANTALIFE: Oh yea that was the company I found before - unfortunately $120/month is way out of my budget for now (I'm not even a company (yet) and this is my first product), and a lot of money to find one part. I'll definitely consider it in the future though

[DIYGUY Chris]

Maybe you want to check resellers on LinkedIn, many Chinese resellers are there and they could provide the part I guess 

[48X24X48X]

Oh they are not, but I'm pretty sure the other guys on the list are. Abacus are a proper distributor we we use/used at work, not that I get involved in that side of things.

They didn't get back to me after I submitted a quote request on their website. It has been few days since. Is that their "normal" timeline?

[Saimoun]

Same here - I have not heard from them yet. They do say on their website they reply when they can and that it might take a while.

[Jeroen3]

There is global shortage of parts. Anyone claiming having said parts nobody else has without asking 10x the price is lying.
I got an email from octopart with this graph in it, and it shows that it's just gone. This applies to basically all parts. And will be for raw materials as well end of summer. (wood, plastics)
Best you can do now is pre-order.

[AndyC_772]

Anyone know why STM32 seems particularly badly hit by the shortage?

[Jeroen3]

Anyone know why STM32 seems particularly badly hit by the shortage?

I can only guess. They sell a lot of variants. So it's already difficult to restock each family at small supply chain disruptions, which is then multiplied by the split into many package variants and memory bins.
I'm not sure if they make the micro's in their own fabs.

[floobydust]

"Strike action has begun {Nov. 5 2020} at ST following a decision by management not to give a raise to all employees, despite recording Q3 revenues 27.8% up on Q2 for a gross profit of $1 billion and a forecast of 12% sequential profit for Q4." 2020 "CGT union points out that the 100 senior executives of ST in France receive on average € 200,000 per year with € 50,000 free shares."
ST CEO gets +28.5% for one year or $1.28M increase for 2020, to $5.74M see cartoon

It involves three unions and a lot of anger at the company. French unions keep pointing out ST profits and exec wages and perks.
I'm not sure if the strike is still going on?

https://www.cad-st.org/-001-les-sites-stmicro-

[Saimoun]

Okaaaayy   
French people demonstrating against horrible management... Sounds familiar!! 

Gosh that explains a lot of things - and in my case I guess they sell the STM8 a lot less than their STM32, so it will probably be the last one to be restocked...

Next project I am definitely going to try GigaDevices - china for the win   (and I am French myself)

[1276-2449-1-ND]

Does ST sell direct?

I had the same problem with a Microchip part, but ordered it through Microchip Direct and even though it was backordered almost a year I got them a month later. It wasn't even a big order -- just a couple hundred ICs.

[Saimoun]

Thanks for the advice )

I have not looked much into it, and when/if I do the idea will be to use them and learn them like I would with any other MCU brand, not as a direct STM32 replacement

[Saimoun]

So I'm trying to order 10 prototypes from NextPCB. Price is 600$. And $250 of that is... the STM8L151G6U6, chosen for its lovely market price of $0.75 in quantities 

[Saimoun]

Ha ha - just went through all posts of that thread 

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/stmicroelectronics-shortage/

You guys are funnay  But also, seriously, very interesting thread to read - I am genuinely considering throwing away 3 months of work on the code for that STM8 and switch to another MCU... I was thinking going to Atmel, but it seems Atmel has been just as little reliable in the past.

And the irony of switching to a GD32 will be the huge amount of processing power that I really do not need - a small (and cheap) 8-bit MCU was all I needed for this project.

[exe]

considering throwing away 3 months of work on the code for that STM8 and switch to another MCU...
(snip)
And the irony of switching to a GD32 will be the huge amount of processing power that I really do not need

Well, may be extra processing power may help saving development efforts?

[olkipukki]

You guys are funnay  But also, seriously, very interesting thread to read - I am genuinely considering throwing away 3 months of work on the code for that STM8 and switch to another MCU... I was thinking going to Atmel, but it seems Atmel has been just as little reliable in the past.

Did you consider Silabs EFM8? 

And the irony of switching to a GD32 will be the huge amount of processing power that I really do not need - a small (and cheap) 8-bit MCU was all I needed for this project.

It looks like a new normal, just buy reels of same IC, regardless if you keep half unpopulated pins and low percentage RAM/storage utilization. 
The promising dev savings exceed a few dozen pennies saved for "nice fit" MCU

[Bassman59]

You guys are funnay  But also, seriously, very interesting thread to read - I am genuinely considering throwing away 3 months of work on the code for that STM8 and switch to another MCU... I was thinking going to Atmel, but it seems Atmel has been just as little reliable in the past.

SiLabs EFM8 work well and are well-supported. Or you could jump to one of their EFM32 parts based on the Cortex-M0+ core.

[ebclr]

Since China still in the word

https://s.taobao.com/search?q=STM8L151G6U6TR&type=p&tmhkh5=&spm=a21wu.241046-global.a2227oh.d100&from=sea_1_searchbutton&catId=100

[mikeselectricstuff]

Changing the MCU type/brand is really the last resort as it would mean months of work (code) down the drain

Seriously? months to change MCU? Is it all written in assembler...?

[Microdoser]

Anyone know why STM32 seems particularly badly hit by the shortage?

Not just the STM32. ATMega 328P, BME280, mosfets, resistors, even battery clips are on backorder.