Where, oh, where are is the TPS7A3901DSCT?

It continues to be a challenging time to get components for our circuit boards. We have been in the chip market for a while now, and during the last few months, there have been a few parts that have been…. well, basically flatlined. Here’s one example, a 20kOhm digital potentiometer — the AD5262BRUZ20 from Analog Devices:

An integrated circuit flatline.

In some cases, the components are available—they are just selling for 10-20x their normal price. And while we would love to just buy the parts, whatever the price, we just can’t make it work when individual components that should cost $4-5 are going for $80-100.

Wanted: Volatile Digital Potentiometer, 20 kOhm, Dual, SPI, Linear, 4.5 V

The good news is that a number of these inventories are somewhat “spiky”—we may see 50 or 100 components pop up for sale, and we are incrementally accumulating what we need for the initial run—as of today, we have supplies of most of the integrated circuits needed for production.

We will keep you posted!

The Light4Sound Team