Hi all,
I found some National original LM38886 and other Tripath ICs requested as samples or bought from RS/Farnell/Mouser more than 20years ago.
They were forgotten into their plastic sticks in my lab, gone unused because I stop almost all activities since my child was born in 2001.
Now I'm rediscovering the Electronic DIY hobby, and I found i've got some of the following ICs:
from National (now TI)
LM3886 (multiwatt 11) Power amplifier 68Watt Rms Mono
LM4780 (muliwatt 27pin) Power amplifier 68+68Watt Rms (stereo)
LM4782 (muliwatt 27pin) Power amplifier 15Watt Rms (3Ch )
from Tripath
TA2022 Power amplifier ClassT 90Watt Rms audio poweramp
TA3020 Power amplifier ClassT final driver (using right IGBT or MOSFET is capable of >300Watt Rms)
If anyone nostalgic has difficulty finding them, they can contact me, I certainly won't use them all.
I also bought some Chinese PCBs and I am able to provide PCB+IC or even complete kits with all components.
I found some National original LM38886 and other Tripath ICs requested as samples or bought from RS/Farnell/Mouser more than 20years ago.
They were forgotten into their plastic sticks in my lab, gone unused because I stop almost all activities since my child was born in 2001.
Now I'm rediscovering the Electronic DIY hobby, and I found i've got some of the following ICs:
from National (now TI)
LM3886 (multiwatt 11) Power amplifier 68Watt Rms Mono
LM4780 (muliwatt 27pin) Power amplifier 68+68Watt Rms (stereo)
LM4782 (muliwatt 27pin) Power amplifier 15Watt Rms (3Ch )
from Tripath
TA2022 Power amplifier ClassT 90Watt Rms audio poweramp
TA3020 Power amplifier ClassT final driver (using right IGBT or MOSFET is capable of >300Watt Rms)
If anyone nostalgic has difficulty finding them, they can contact me, I certainly won't use them all.
I also bought some Chinese PCBs and I am able to provide PCB+IC or even complete kits with all components.
I doubt it. More likely, the shortage was due to the world-wide shutdown and reduced production capacity from that virus that went around. The LM3886 wasn't the only product affected. It was basically any electronic component that was affected. Automotive-qualified parts were especially affected.
Tom
Lm3886 is unique in that it is a single source part. It must have enough volume or key customers to keep it alive.
TI axed many parts in the process of recovering from the pandemic.
I do not see many, if not any, parts that I use coming back down in price. Availability has recovered but not pricing.
Onsemi is finally recovering, some semis like mj21194,95 are still on back order.
Blank pcb costs from jlcpcb have not changed much. Shipping costs have gone up however.
TI axed many parts in the process of recovering from the pandemic.
I do not see many, if not any, parts that I use coming back down in price. Availability has recovered but not pricing.
Onsemi is finally recovering, some semis like mj21194,95 are still on back order.
Blank pcb costs from jlcpcb have not changed much. Shipping costs have gone up however.
Last edited:
Yep!! The same can be said for many legacy parts too. A part like the LM317 is still selling. It was introduced in 1976 if I recall correctly. Needless to say it's not made on the same process as it was in 1976. You don't just move a part from one process to the next. It's basically a full redesign, except the circuit designer also needs to replicate all the quirks and oddities of the original part. That's actually pretty difficult ... and expensive. Which tells me that TI must be selling an astounding number of LM317s to make that worthwhile. And LM3886 too if they chose to keep it around after the acquisition of NSC and also now in the post-COVID world.
Tom
I was using TI LM237KC that they recently axed. Looks like they axed their lm317kc too but kept the National versions of the parts.
Consequently i’ll use lm337sp from ST as the National lm337 is almost double the price. I use ST lm217T-DG on a regular bases.
ADI still offers lm337A from linear tech acquisition, it’s expensive just like everything from ADI.
Consequently i’ll use lm337sp from ST as the National lm337 is almost double the price. I use ST lm217T-DG on a regular bases.
ADI still offers lm337A from linear tech acquisition, it’s expensive just like everything from ADI.
Which benefit did the 237 provide over the 337 in your application?
There are fewer and fewer LM337 types in the world. TI is discontinuing the TO-92 version. It's a bit unsettling as I use that a lot, but such is life.
One thing that's been gone for quite a while now is binning (A, B, C grade pulled from the same wafer). That's pretty expensive to do and the manufacturer risks ending up with a bunch of inventory of grades that don't sell. Even National really frowned upon that when I started there (2005).
Tom
There are fewer and fewer LM337 types in the world. TI is discontinuing the TO-92 version. It's a bit unsettling as I use that a lot, but such is life.
One thing that's been gone for quite a while now is binning (A, B, C grade pulled from the same wafer). That's pretty expensive to do and the manufacturer risks ending up with a bunch of inventory of grades that don't sell. Even National really frowned upon that when I started there (2005).
Tom
Back to my previous comment: If you look at quarterly statements from semiconductor companies, revenue has been down in the past roughly 18 months over the immediate-post-pandemic supply-chain-constrained highs, though unit volumes shipped are stable to upward. That says prices are going down. I definitely agree that the cost of getting a blank PCB fabricated has gone up and seems to be staying there, but component prices are down relative to recent peaks. You as a small hobby purchaser at Digi-Key or Mouser, etc., may not notice that as much, if at all, but it's true for large commercial/industrial customers who account for the vast majority of sales.
Hi Tom,
LM237KC was used since it was just as much $ as the alternatives. It has slightly better guaranteed specs due to testing/grading I assume , temp, voltage tolerance, PSRR (ripple rejection), min o/p current.
I use ST LM217T-DG for the same reasons. A very reliable part.
In the last batch I've had a couple of failures of TI LM237KC, they went noisy after a while. I measure noise upon production test, so they failed in the field.
I think TI has done me a favour forcing me to switch to ST., which for me are overall a better supplier, lead-time, quality, price.
I find ST process to be better as far as tolerance, failures, so happy enough to use their parts. I won't be using one TI part from now on unless I design something that does.
At one time TI was a great supplier, now, not so much so, from my recent experiences.
Hi Brian,
I buy transitors/semi's by the rail, still small time. The ecomonics of me buying small quantities of parts does not compare to a fortune 500 as those folks have contracts in place to deliver. The rest of us are considered secondary or gravy. I'd bet a dime on the $ that whomever buys the most LM3886 has a contract in place. I doubt that Nueochrome buys enough volume to have a contract with TI to deliver directly and by-pass the disti's. But I hope that Nueochrome does for their sake. I am not a buyer for a fortune 500, although in my HP days this was the practice in gearing up for a MR (manufacturing release). Like I said in the past, who in their right mind would design in a new TI part if they could not be guarentee, by contract, to deliver parts as agreed too?
It's surprising how much influenece TSMC has on the semi industry these days. I see that Samsung is top dog by a fair margin. I keep in contact with a few chip designers that work at AMD, Broadcoam, Qualcomm. It's interseting to hear what they say about the industry from their perspective, contracts with Sony for Playstation chips in the millions and here I am building a couple of pcb's.
Someone the other day was going on about watching out for a KSC3503 going obsolete, like when will that day come, the day the class "AB" amplifier dies?
When I was designing in the past, purchasing frowned on single sourced parts and so should everyone else but it's near impossible to do unless its just a bunch of jelly bean bjts. I can design a class "AB" amp with second sources and that's about it, but not using a LM3886.
Supossedly its going to get dark this aft, around these parts, cloudy overcast skies, glad I did not buy into coloured lenses. yesterday was a perfect sunny day.
Back to work, break time over
Rick
LM237KC was used since it was just as much $ as the alternatives. It has slightly better guaranteed specs due to testing/grading I assume , temp, voltage tolerance, PSRR (ripple rejection), min o/p current.
I use ST LM217T-DG for the same reasons. A very reliable part.
In the last batch I've had a couple of failures of TI LM237KC, they went noisy after a while. I measure noise upon production test, so they failed in the field.
I think TI has done me a favour forcing me to switch to ST., which for me are overall a better supplier, lead-time, quality, price.
I find ST process to be better as far as tolerance, failures, so happy enough to use their parts. I won't be using one TI part from now on unless I design something that does.
At one time TI was a great supplier, now, not so much so, from my recent experiences.
Hi Brian,
I buy transitors/semi's by the rail, still small time. The ecomonics of me buying small quantities of parts does not compare to a fortune 500 as those folks have contracts in place to deliver. The rest of us are considered secondary or gravy. I'd bet a dime on the $ that whomever buys the most LM3886 has a contract in place. I doubt that Nueochrome buys enough volume to have a contract with TI to deliver directly and by-pass the disti's. But I hope that Nueochrome does for their sake. I am not a buyer for a fortune 500, although in my HP days this was the practice in gearing up for a MR (manufacturing release). Like I said in the past, who in their right mind would design in a new TI part if they could not be guarentee, by contract, to deliver parts as agreed too?
It's surprising how much influenece TSMC has on the semi industry these days. I see that Samsung is top dog by a fair margin. I keep in contact with a few chip designers that work at AMD, Broadcoam, Qualcomm. It's interseting to hear what they say about the industry from their perspective, contracts with Sony for Playstation chips in the millions and here I am building a couple of pcb's.
Someone the other day was going on about watching out for a KSC3503 going obsolete, like when will that day come, the day the class "AB" amplifier dies?
When I was designing in the past, purchasing frowned on single sourced parts and so should everyone else but it's near impossible to do unless its just a bunch of jelly bean bjts. I can design a class "AB" amp with second sources and that's about it, but not using a LM3886.
Supossedly its going to get dark this aft, around these parts, cloudy overcast skies, glad I did not buy into coloured lenses. yesterday was a perfect sunny day.
Back to work, break time over
Rick
A local company has started work on a chip assembly plant here in India, it is called CG Power something. Technology from Taiwan, Powersafe IIRC.
They are saying it is a medium to small plant, with an output of 15 million devices a day.
Mostly for EV, LED and solar applications, they have huge demand here in India.
Compare that to most hobby / project volumes, and you will realize why many companies do not respond to small volume inquiries.
And really you cannot negotiate on price etc., leave that to people like Digikey and their competitors.
They are saying it is a medium to small plant, with an output of 15 million devices a day.
Mostly for EV, LED and solar applications, they have huge demand here in India.
Compare that to most hobby / project volumes, and you will realize why many companies do not respond to small volume inquiries.
And really you cannot negotiate on price etc., leave that to people like Digikey and their competitors.
I don't have a contract with TI. The largest order of LM3886 I've placed has been for 1kU and that was placed through Digikey or Mouser as TI doesn't accept backorders. QTY 1000 is certainly a lot by DIY standards but a drop in the bucket for TI. It's a lot for me too. I'm still trying to decide what to do with them...
The majority will go into the next Modulus-686 build. I suspect many will become part of Modulus-86 kits as well. You can buy QTY 1 at TI if you want to. And sometimes it makes sense to do so. I've had several projects where it made sense to buy QTY 100-250 directly from TI instead of buying from the distributor. Even after the added shipping charge, I still saved around 40% by shopping at TI instead of at the distributor. Whether you save anything seems to vary from part to part.
While the parts cost may be coming down, I fully expect the cost of assembly to remain at its current levels. My assembly house had to increase wages to keep their good employees around. There's only one source of that money ... .me. And I'm fine with that. I sleep well at night knowing that my circuits are built to Canadian labour standards and environmental standards.
Tom