Comments on Are questions about electronics market trends on-topic?
Parent
Are questions about electronics market trends on-topic?
I'm curious about the market trend of certain kind of components (specifically, 0603 ceramic capacitors) and if I should start worrying about these getting phased out. I started to write a question but then I realized that the question wasn't actually about electronics, but the electronics market.
The question goes:
There was a big ruckus a few years back when Murata cancelled a whole lot of their surface mount passives production (see this) and planned to phase out their 0402 and larger components, particularly ceramic caps, since these were simply not profitable to manufacture any longer. They also put all of their trim caps as end of life.
As a result of this, the market went crazy and SMD capacitor prices sky-rocketed for a while, particularly 0603 and 0805. It seems to have gone back to normal now, as other manufacturers have filled the gap.
0805 and larger already feel like they are getting phased out since a decade back or so. Obviously, the laws of physics limit how small components of a certain chemistry, with certain attributes can get. And some parts like 10uF ceramic caps were only relatively recently possible to make in 0805.
But ignoring such special cases and only looking at "mainstream" passives, should I worry about 0603 getting phased out in favour of 0402 and 0201? (When) should I start using 0402 or 0201 by default in new designs?
Would a question like this be on-topic here? I'm not sure myself: market trends isn't electrical engineering, but component choice is.
Post
I think that the example question in the O.P. should be re-written as design for manufacturing question (DfM, or some other DfX). Electronics market trends questions should be off-topic. It would invite opinion-based speculation.
0 comment threads