If you are planning a product launch, a production run or a large kit order for 2027, microcontroller and sensor lead times are a real constraint. In its Q3 2026 Trendliner, published in August, distributor Avnet Silica lists lead times of 26+ weeks for every MCU class it tracks, for MPUs, and for sensors and actuators. That is six months or more between placing an order and getting the parts.
What the Avnet Silica data says
- MCUs: 26+ weeks for 8-bit and lower, 16-bit, 32-bit and higher, automotive MCUs and the MCU total. Avnet's comment: "Prices and lead times increasing across the board."
- MPUs: 26+ weeks, and Avnet asks buyers to "provide visibility to ensure supply."
- Sensors and actuators: 26+ weeks, with the comment "Capacity limitation on sensors, plan your needs long term."
- Programmable logic: 26+ weeks. Avnet says there are "many parts with 1 year leadtime" and asks customers for demand visibility up to the end of CY27.
- Power management ICs: 16+ weeks. That is shorter than MCUs, but it is still about four months.
- DRAM: 26+ weeks, with DDR4 and LPDDR4 on allocation. This is the same memory squeeze behind the $385 Raspberry Pi 5 16GB.
These are category figures from one distributor, not quotes for every part number. Avnet's supplier table shows how much they vary. It lists Microchip at 10-40 weeks across its range, Nordic Semiconductor at 20-30 weeks and Renesas embedded processing at 18-36 weeks. Sourceability makes the same point in its 2027 market outlook on 6 November. Selected STMicroelectronics families reached 52-week lead times "despite the wider MCU market not being in universal shortage," so buyers need to check parts one by one.
Thomas Foj, a vice president of supplier management at Avnet Silica, put it this way in the report announcement: the stronger market outlook "should not be mistaken for a return to simple or predictable supply conditions."
Prices may rise again
TrendForce reported on 5 October, citing Taiwan's Economic Daily News, that power management IC, driver IC and MCU suppliers are reportedly considering a second round of price hikes between the end of 2026 and early 2027. The increases could range "from 5% to double-digit percentages." The main driver is foundry cost. The same report says TSMC is reportedly set to raise mature-node wafer prices by around 3% to 10% from January 2027. Neither has been officially confirmed. Sourceability repeats the outlook and says it tracked 27 price increase notices from 20 major manufacturers in Q3 2026.
TrendForce also reports that some customers have started pulling orders forward, although IC designers say this is not a broad recovery in demand.
Our take
A maker buying a few dev boards will usually find distributor stock. These numbers matter once you move to production. Freeze your BOM early, qualify a second-source MCU and sensor before you need them, share forecasts with your distributor, and leave room for price changes in any 2027 quotes. Remember that this is August data. Avnet now advertises a Q4 2026 Trendliner, so check your own part numbers before you commit.
Image: CircuitDigest graphic. Lead time data from the Avnet Silica Q3 2026 Trendliner (August 2026).
About the author: Aswinth Raj is an electronics engineer and the editor of CircuitDigest, where he has published more than 150 hands-on projects and tutorials across Arduino, PIC, ESP32, Raspberry Pi and EV battery systems. He selects the stories on this page for what engineers and makers can actually learn or build from. Connect on LinkedIn
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