Overcoming the Costs of Die and Wafer Banking
The decision to incorporate die and wafer banking into your product designs is an easy one to make if it’s in the OEM’s capacity to do so. Not only can the custom-designed ASICs assembled during production exhibit performance enhancements on par with the best modern technology has to offer, but their narrow function also renders them remarkably efficient. And with demand in the IoT and automotive sectors prompting the most significant component shortage since the turn of the century, they also provide the added benefit of business continuity; stockpiling large quantities of critical inventory upfront, after all, is the easiest way to avoid supply chain disruption during a shortage.
Such benefits, however, can only be attained provided the OEM is able to overcome die and wafer banking’s high cost of entry. Although the banking process itself is relatively inexpensive per capita compared to traditional storage procedures, the infrastructure needed to ensure die and wafer remains functional is not. When customers describe to us the reasons why they have not fully incorporated ASICs into their designs, the infrastructure investment is typically the primary concern.
Unfortunately, not taking into account alternative storage solutions that render such concerns moot, there is little room in the die and wafer banking process to “cut corners” as far as infrastructure is concerned. Raw die and wafer are particularly sensitive to moisture compared to standard components — and while a standard component can remain housed in climate-controlled storage (with relative humidity oscillating between 30 and 60 percent), bare die is prone to oxidation at any relative humidity over 10 percent. To maintain this, the inventory must be housed in a dry cabinet designed to store such sensitive materials.
Traditionally, these devices have been enriched with nitrogen, which exhibits moisture absorption qualities sufficient to maintain 6-10 percent relative humidity. More recently, however, dry cabinet manufacturers have begun to introduce new banking technologies to meet their customers’ growing need to support longer product lifecycles. By enriching new cabinets with the volcanic compound zeolite, for example, customers can now maintain a relative humidity of 0.5 percent. Not only does this create an even safer environment for moisture-sensitive components, but the 3-minute recovery time this allows for gives handlers the ability to securely access inventory as often as 12 times per hour. (The recovery time for nitrogen-enriched cabinets can be as long as 30 minutes in between handling sessions).
If an OEM wanted access to this kind of technology in the past, that meant investing in it. As the current component shortage is threatening to extend cash cycles past the point of comfort, such investments are usually out of the question. Concentrate on the most pressing issues facing the company now, so the reasoning goes, so that we can accomplish our long-term goals when the market is more favorable.
That’s reasonable logic, but favorable market conditions do not appear to be on the horizon anytime soon. Even though supplier revenues are at an all-time high with demand driving up prices, some components are currently experiencing lead time increases as high as 700 percent. Many analysts are not predicting any change in the market before 2020, and some are even predicting that component prices will remain high even when production catches up with demand.
If you wish to incorporate die and wafer banking into your supply chain but have been waiting for the right time, it might be time to stop waiting and find a solution that allows you to compete in the market today.