As an executive at an electronics manufacturing company, I have to say that I’m in the thick of the supply chain woes. From where I sit, this will continue to be the biggest challenge in 2023. The labor shortage will remain as a compounding factor throughout the year. However, the industry is learning to adapt and manufacturing output will increase next year. Even if the overall economy slows down, electronics will not.
One of the biggest trends I see is the consolidation of component and design variations. For example, programmable sensors where one component can be adapted with simple programming to replace multiple variations of the part. You will have fewer component varieties to choose from, but the chip and MEMS fab lines won’t need to change up so many times to accommodate endless varieties of nearly identical parts. For all types of families, passive and active, the smaller package size parts will be the first to get back to something close to predictable availability. If you are a designer and have resisted the latest round of miniaturization with chip scale microcontrollers and 0201 passives, now is the time to take the “small” plunge.
You should also expect additional cost increases throughout the first half of 2023 as world-wide finances settle to a more stable place. The good news is that smaller components are often less expensive to purchase, which can allow you to reduce PCB real estate and product size leading to some cost savings for the finished product.