Semiconductors and ICs update: Spot shortages and extended lead times are settling in

USA: Here's the latest update from Converge's Market Insights.

The market is settling into a consistent pattern of spot shortages and extended lead times, being driven by the following:

* Texas Instruments (TI) continues to lead the way among companies facing shortage problems with its DSPs, TPS series of converters and SN74 logic series; once again being joined by their OPA series of OpAmps. After quieting down for several months, the OpAmps look to be returning to a problem status of significance.

* There is no change in the capacitor shortages on Murata ceramic high-CV caps and AVX tantalum caps.

* Freescale processors and Altera PLDs continue to be short, with the Altera products heating up considerably over the past several days and Broadcom's delivery on some of its BCM5 series Ethernet controllers turning out to be less significant than expected.

* NXP logic, controllers and LCD drivers have also become tighter over the past several weeks, as have some Tyco high-density connectors.

* Voltage regulators have also started to show tightness recently, with Infineon and Fairchild leading the way.