Has the world run out of 100nF Caps

[k4rlhp]

Where i work there is talk of a worldwide shortage of chip capacitors.   Anybody else heard of this ?

Yes.  Every build I have done in the past 3-4 months has had multiple components out of stock at all distributors.

It does look like it's not about capacitors only.

Just received a shipment I placed on Farnells for 14 different items. 6 are put on backorder and I only received 8... Argh! I painstakingly chose the components based on reported stock availability. This stuff is killing me.
I'm missing 1Gohm and 1 ohm resistors, Dual matched NPN's in the BC847 flavor, DPDT Switches and SP3T slide Switches, Miniature integrated DC-DC modules. So nothing really special.
I don't mind if something is out of stock, however, it seems more that these guys are not in control of their stock inventory if over 40% of items are quoted with wrong stock availability.

Silly thing is, I built the order on mouser, they reported some components missing on the web so I checked on farnell's and as these were reported in stock (chose ones with in 100's or 1000's in stock), placed the order there. Initially I thought these mouser guys were not on top of the game by not having fairly common items but now it looks more like Mouser guys are in control of their stock so you know what you get or don't get.

[Marco]

Did everyone just decide at once that reducing their stock overhead was a good idea to increase profit? Management fad run wild?

[SiliconWizard]

I have FDC638P's on backorder with Mouser, there is practically no stock anywhere and barely 7 on cut tape at Digikey.
 

[saike]

I thought for a long time that it was just companies here in the UK trying to reduce costs by cutting their stock levels.
Stuff I ordered that was listed as in stock at RS, arrived direct from Japan.  I thought maybe this was a new way for them of doing business. Just buying stuff in as needed and passing it on with a price mark up.
I can remember when I used to praise RS for being able to supply nearly 100% of every order I made from stock. Things have changed a lot since then, it seems it may not be entirely their fault.

[Howardlong]

I guess that explains why I had a bunch of non-delivered reals from Farnell a few weeks ago at my assemblers. Thankfully this is a regular run and there was enough residual stock from about a dozen previous runs to cover the missing items.

I am not so sure I’ll be as lucky next run, this seems to be pretty bad, in some ways similar to the shortages we saw around 2011/2012 or so after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami disrupted supply chains.

[Siwastaja]

I don't mind if something is out of stock, however, it seems more that these guys are not in control of their stock inventory if over 40% of items are quoted with wrong stock availability.

Totally incorrect stock numbers, or a broken stock backend code, seems to be a Farnell-specific issue (in addition to the manufacturing crisis, of course, which is a separate thing). After over a decade of being a Farnell customer, I almost completely stopped using them about a year ago for this specific reason. Not surprised to hear it's still going on.

Specifically, about 20-30% of the products that were available in quantities for the whole design cycle time (months), and then available just minutes before you order (while adding them to cart), magically disappear after your order is in, and are in backorder.

I have had such horrible service from Farnell that I wouldn't be too surprised to find out they do this on purpose. It would be kinda fraudulent (called bait-and-switch), but would make sense a lot: it's a compelling factor that they seem to have better stock than their competitors, and once you have ordered, you are already "locked in" and are very unlikely to cancel your order - or even cancel the backordered items!

Still, it's most likely their information technology is just broken. Another reason for ditching them was that I don't have hours of cumulated time available for a simple 100-line order just to wait for the website to respond after blocking for minutes, then try again after it crashes, try to sidestep the non-working BOM/CSV import by iteratively halving the list until it passes without crashing the whole website, and so on...

Since I prefer fair play, customer service, and responsive, working website, I have gone with Digikey as my preferred distributor, and have not looked back. Mouser seems to work as well without these kind of issues.

[jmelson]

I have had such horrible service from Farnell that I wouldn't be too surprised to find out they do this on purpose. It would be kinda fraudulent (called bait-and-switch), but would make sense a lot: it's a compelling factor that they seem to have better stock than their competitors, and once you have ordered, you are already "locked in" and are very unlikely to cancel your order - or even cancel the backordered items!

Well, if I can find a part somewhere else, i have NO PROBLEM canceling the order that is on backorder.

Since I prefer fair play, customer service, and responsive, working website, I have gone with Digikey as my preferred distributor, and have not looked back. Mouser seems to work as well without these kind of issues.

Digi-Key at least seems to be honest about what is in stock.  A few times there has been an issue where the actual stock in the warehouse is not equal to what they think they have, but it is rare.  But, they too are either having trouble keeping parts in stock or are reducing stock levels on less-common items.

I do buy connectors from a NON-stocking distributor who has prices HALF of what Digi-Key charges.  But, the downside is I have to order stuff 8-10 weeks in advance, and sometimes it takes 12+ weeks to come in.  But, that lower price does make it worthwhile to stock a bunch.  And, if I run short, I can always buy a few at Digi-Key.

Jon

[Alex Eisenhut]

Quick search on ebay for 100nF caps returned only one auction...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/100nf-ceramic-capacitor-RARE-Price-reduced/302711136546?hash=item467afd6122:g:6xwAAOSwkVxa2d~E
Unobtainium! 
I guess I will have to connect two 56nF in parallel then...

Is this a joke?

https://www.digikey.ca/products/en/capacitors/ceramic-capacitors/60?k=0.1uf&k=&pkeyword=0.1uf&pv7=2&pv1989=0&FV=ffe0003c&quantity=0&ColumnSort=0&page=1&stock=1&pageSize=25

 

[JPortici]

Mouser seems to work as well without these kind of issues.

happens from time to time with mouser as well. Last time for me was about one year ago, Murata 0603 100n 50V, there were tens of thousand available just before hitting "order"
to be fair, i then checked that and related partnumbers on all the major distributors, they had gone out of stock everywhere (and some hundred thousands on backorder) so i guess a big fish was doing shopping that same day

with farnell? you are correct. luckily for me this time i just needed about 50 of those caps to assemble some prototypes and keep a few spares, i phoned them and they just sent 50 from another PN

[Cerebus]

Quick search on ebay for 100nF caps returned only one auction...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/100nf-ceramic-capacitor-RARE-Price-reduced/302711136546?hash=item467afd6122:g:6xwAAOSwkVxa2d~E
Unobtainium! 
I guess I will have to connect two 56nF in parallel then...

Is this a joke?

https://www.digikey.ca/products/en/capacitors/ceramic-capacitors/60?k=0.1uf&k=&pkeyword=0.1uf&pv7=2&pv1989=0&FV=ffe0003c&quantity=0&ColumnSort=0&page=1&stock=1&pageSize=25

 

You've picked any dielectric, any size, any voltage. Now try 100nF, X7R and 0603, any voltage.

https://www.digikey.ca/products/en/capacitors/ceramic-capacitors/60?k=0.1uf&k=&pkeyword=0.1uf&pv17=5&pv17=466&pv17=416&pv16=5&FV=ffe0003c%2C1c0002%2C1f140000&quantity=0&ColumnSort=0&page=1&stock=1&pageSize=25

12 parts in total, prices range from $0.14 to $1.10 CAD, each.

[JPortici]

[sarcasm] Fear not [/sarcasm], mouser is restocking Murata. millions of them in order with 38 fucking weeks of lead time

0402, couple of millions soon:
next monday - https://www.mouser.it/ProductDetail/Murata-Electronics/GCM155R71C104KA55D?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvsSlwiRhF8qh1EJ90GfnwbwozyHSKJYn4%3d

0603, couple hundred thousands:
mid may - https://www.mouser.it/ProductDetail/Murata-Electronics/GCM188R71E104KA57D?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvsSlwiRhF8qmjL7QNDLPrPG%252bexFjXpseY%3d
mid june - https://www.mouser.it/ProductDetail/Murata-Electronics/GRM188R71H104JA93D?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvsSlwiRhF8qqDvUs8Zl92X7ViVvWCj%2f3Y%3d

i wonder how long they're going to last

is there a website that keeps track of stocks that also show the graph? i think octopart used to do it..

[drussell]

12 parts in total, prices range from $0.14 to $1.10 CAD, each.

Well, it is expected that those "fancy" ones like the 4-terminal combination X/Y EMI suppression caps, the ones with special, high-reliability "soft" terminations or the mil-spec lead-tin non-ROHS specialized ones, etc. would cost more than the 14 or 15 cents each general purpose ones. 

[splin]

Quick search on ebay for 100nF caps returned only one auction...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/100nf-ceramic-capacitor-RARE-Price-reduced/302711136546?hash=item467afd6122:g:6xwAAOSwkVxa2d~E
Unobtainium! 
I guess I will have to connect two 56nF in parallel then...

Is this a joke?

https://www.digikey.ca/products/en/capacitors/ceramic-capacitors/60?k=0.1uf&k=&pkeyword=0.1uf&pv7=2&pv1989=0&FV=ffe0003c&quantity=0&ColumnSort=0&page=1&stock=1&pageSize=25

 

You've picked any dielectric, any size, any voltage. Now try 100nF, X7R and 0603, any voltage.

https://www.digikey.ca/products/en/capacitors/ceramic-capacitors/60?k=0.1uf&k=&pkeyword=0.1uf&pv17=5&pv17=466&pv17=416&pv16=5&FV=ffe0003c%2C1c0002%2C1f140000&quantity=0&ColumnSort=0&page=1&stock=1&pageSize=25

12 parts in total, prices range from $0.14 to $1.10 CAD, each.

If it's for decoupling then what about a Samsung .22uF, 16V X7R? Digikey claim a stock of 812,000 and they are only $.00863.

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/samsung-electro-mechanics/CL10B224KO8NNNC/1276-1112-2-ND/3886770

They also have 262,000 similar Yaego parts @ $.00993

[Cerebus]

If it's for decoupling then what about a Samsung .22uF, 16V X7R? Digikey claim a stock of 812,000 and they are only $.00863.

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/samsung-electro-mechanics/CL10B224KO8NNNC/1276-1112-2-ND/3886770

They also have 262,000 similar Yaego parts @ $.00993

If you're doing it on your bench, where you know what each part does, fine. If you're doing it for a production run of 10,000 colour tellies and
1) You haven't qualified the part
2) Not all the 100 nF, 50V, 0603 parts in the design are decoupling caps,
3) The shift in the effect of capacitance due to DC bias on a 50V part versus a 16V part hasn't been qualified,
4) etc. etc.
it's not so simple. Do you want to gamble on 10,000 new tellies becoming returns, or to do the NRE to qualify the part substitution (including EMI compliance, lifetime testing, etc.)?

[grouchobyte]

For passive these guys are pretty decent and they will deliver fast and cheap, 7.7 million  in stock

https://lcsc.com/product-detail/Multilayer-Ceramic-Capacitors-MLCC-SMD-SMT_100nF-104-10-50V_C14663.html

@grouchobyte

[wraper]

For passive these guys are pretty decent and they will deliver fast and cheap, 7.7 million  in stock

https://lcsc.com/product-detail/Multilayer-Ceramic-Capacitors-MLCC-SMD-SMT_100nF-104-10-50V_C14663.html

@grouchobyte

That's some crazy price. 3.6 cents @ qty of 10k for some common yageo MLCC is insane. If you want a reel of 4000, that's $154. Actual value is less than 10% of that.

[Cerebus]

Actual value is less than 10% of that.

Agreed about the value, but at the moment that's a good price in the face of what others are charging.

[Simon]

Just received a shipment I placed on Farnells for 14 different items. 6 are put on backorder and I only received 8... Argh! I painstakingly chose the components based on reported stock availability. This stuff is killing me.
I'm missing 1Gohm and 1 ohm resistors, Dual matched NPN's in the BC847 flavor, DPDT Switches and SP3T slide Switches, Miniature integrated DC-DC modules. So nothing really special.
I don't mind if something is out of stock, however, it seems more that these guys are not in control of their stock inventory if over 40% of items are quoted with wrong stock availability.

Silly thing is, I built the order on mouser, they reported some components missing on the web so I checked on farnell's and as these were reported in stock (chose ones with in 100's or 1000's in stock), placed the order there. Initially I thought these mouser guys were not on top of the game by not having fairly common items but now it looks more like Mouser guys are in control of their stock so you know what you get or don't get.

Farnell are a bunch of useless wankers. They show stock on their site for hours after it was actually purchased. I now no longer use them and they are aware of the problem on their site and have been for years. I also only buy from RS if the order value is low as they are also hopeless because the availability of stock is not part of the parametric search so i have to wade through results to find the 10% that are in stock. As much as I would like to involve UK companies in my work RS and Farnell can both go and screw themselves. Anything big goes straight to mouser and as due the shortages I am buying by the reel that means mouser most of the time.

British business does seem to have a massive knack for shooting itself in the foot. I have been raging at Farnell for years about the amount of time in stock product is not in stock and they could clearly not give a fuck so I don't use them anymore.

[Simon]

I win! By 4-8 fold...

https://www.ttiinc.com/content/ttiinc/en/apps/part-detail.html?mfgShortname=KEM&partsNumber=C0603C104M5RACTU&utm=704

£14.70 for 4k.  Over 300k in stock...

Holy shit, since I posted this yesterday, someone purchased over 140k pieces!!!

There is a shortage worldwide, lead-times on resistors and capacitors is longer than normal and we are now talking up to 2 years. Royal ohm has put itself at the exclusive service of an auto maker for the next 2 years. All parts i order for prototypes are now ordered by the reel with a view to be able to supply a contract assembler if things get that bad.