Why MAXIM IC's are so absurdly expensive?
CuriousOne
Posts: 931
No doubt, they produce (not their development btw) nice clock and thermometer ICs, but their specific IC's are absurdly expensive, for example
MAX6952 - decoder for 5x7 LED displays with built in charset generator. $ 27.09:
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/MAX6952EAX%2B/MAX6952EAX%2B-ND/1511932
MAX7219 - popular 7 segment LED driver, $10.11:
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/MAX7219CWG%2BT/MAX7219CWG%2BTCT-ND/4146791
And many many others.
Cmon maxim, why such unreasonable price?
Neither of these chips does the super specific tasks, which can't be done otherwise. For example, with only few external components like crystal and drive transistors, I can replicate MAX6952 with say using PIC16F877, and total part cost won't exceed $7, while having many many other functions, like larger character generator memory, smooth scrolling effects and so on.
MAX6952 - decoder for 5x7 LED displays with built in charset generator. $ 27.09:
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/MAX6952EAX%2B/MAX6952EAX%2B-ND/1511932
MAX7219 - popular 7 segment LED driver, $10.11:
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/MAX7219CWG%2BT/MAX7219CWG%2BTCT-ND/4146791
And many many others.
Cmon maxim, why such unreasonable price?
Neither of these chips does the super specific tasks, which can't be done otherwise. For example, with only few external components like crystal and drive transistors, I can replicate MAX6952 with say using PIC16F877, and total part cost won't exceed $7, while having many many other functions, like larger character generator memory, smooth scrolling effects and so on.
Comments
MAX3232 (TI - 250 kBaud): $0.81 ea. / 2000 reel
ST3232 (ST Micro - 300 kBaud): $0.39 ea. / 2500 reel
-Phil
Make sure and check ebay for chips. I purchased 50 MAX7219 chips (SOIC) for $25.
Why is it when I source ICs I always skip looking at Maxim.
To me Maxim is:
Mostly just rs232 voltage converters
Costly compared to NXP and TI.
But maybe that is the niche market you want to be in?
Why do you think they are called Maxim? As in Maximum profit!
Hmmm, I don't think I would ever use these parts anyway though I have used SAA1064s for driving 4 digits over I2C and with much more drive (21ma/2) vs MAX7219 (37ma/8) and these chips are addressable and the drive current is programmable over I2C.
Anyway for the truly cheap way of driving LEDs you can just buy very cheap (20cents or less) 74HC595'ish chips with one cents work of resistor array to drive 8 LEDs per chip. Although it sounds like brute force you will find the solution very compact if you use TSSOP and SMD resnets. You can even control the brightness by PWMing the OE line.
BTW, you can't replicate the function of an LED driver with just a micro unless you intend to drive them with very little current but a one dollar micro in conjunction with the shift registers will handle these functions easily.
Maxim has had several signiifcant design wins..which has allowed them to charge the going rate.
Several projects have been certified with their chips...which means you use them for production unless you wish to recert the product..hint..no one wants that.
Some products require the minimum use of software... because of recert costs...so an expensive off the shelf hardware solution is the "cheaper" solution.
As a niche provider, some of their offerings are the only game in town...and if allowed to be designed into a project will cause the buyer to have to buy a product lifetime supply of the chips...guaranteeing Maxim a pile of money.
Maxim chips aren't exclusive, they are just handy, but not for prices maxim offers them. And sure, alternatives for most chips are available (I have seen by my eye personally non-maxim made MAX7219s and MAX7456). For the MAX6952, I don't remember exactly the model, but there's equivalent featured chip, with $7 retail price in China.
Yes...cert = certified....to whatever parameter you want...as long as you willing to pay for it.
For most of us it means temperature.
Some of us want radiation hardened.
Others want as screaming fast as we can get.
I have also seen how cold can you go and how wide a voltage swing can it stand.
Vibration is another one.
Because the auto market is so large = quantities in the millions...they have the clout to ask for whatever pleases their little heart.
I recall NASA buying old parts on Ebay because they could not find cert parts from decades ago...I would hate to be on the rocket that used them.
FWIW...if you buy old IC stock the certification paperwork that comes with the UNOPENED tubes can be worth their weight in gold when you sell it to the needy company.
The drying up of a parts source is the #1 reason why old products get redesigned...and why many milllions of dollars are spent..for a lack of chip a kingdom was lost....
FWIW...no one producing a significant quanity of units will stake their reputation on a cheap chip from China...repeatiability and traceability is key for production. China can produce good quality...but like any where else it costs money.
Maxim gets what they ask because of their reputation of delivering as promised and because of their niche.
In the past I would avoid them because they were single source...tie a design to any one who is the only producer and you are setting yourself up to be held up on price once they get the design win.
As a designer one needs to ask whether their pricing is okay compared to the other options...and the actual design effort is peanuts compared to production costs in most cases. To be able to tell, you need to talk to your marketing and production staff.
FWIW...some systems want NO (okay...as little as possible ;<) ) software because of the cert costs related to it...and rarely are the same developers around for maintainance and upgrades. Many products are discontinued because the company has lost the software expertise related to it.
I think those high prices reflect low volume lines.
Their metering Microcontrollers are more reasonably priced.
Certainly, on general IO, they are fighting against low end Microcontrollers, when something simple like Atmel LP52 gives 36io for ~ 65c/100, that makes it hard to get any volumes in more custom solutions.
Even ADC product lines, have to be struggling against the ADCs that ship in many small micros these days.
Correct..low volumes mean higher prices.
But the real deal is some products HAVE to have them...again I have worked on programs where every line of code cost LOTS of money...and everything but sacrifice the programers to the gods was done to avoid any code content...the Maxim solution would have been a nobrainer.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370990606383
Bought them. None of them works. Same IC, bought from digikey, on same PCB/configuration - works just fine.
So don't get fooled by low price.
This brings up a good point...how do you know that you are getting the IC that you wanted?
Very easy to counterfeit many things.
The best case is it just doesn't work...the worse is that it works until the product is fielded...kinda works always sucks.