A large amount of our business is replacing obsolete processors in medical devices.  We are happy for the business, but one can ask why so many medical customers want older processors.

When a part goes EOL (end-of-life), existing customers are allowed to make a final purchase that is to cover their needs for the remaining life of their product.  This lifetime is determined by the anticipated date for the introduction of the next generation product.  However, there have been two developments that have extended the demand of the original products, and that has led to the demand for the mature products that we are seeing.

The first development has been the increase in regulatory coverage for medical parts.  It now takes much longer to qualify a new medical device, and that means that the older device remains in production for a longer period, often for years longer.  The longer lifetime increases the demand for the component parts beyond that which was originally purchased in the original EOL purchase, and that is where Tekmos comes in.

The second development is also related to increased regulatory oversight.  Medical devices frequently require a specialized operator training and qualification.  This is expensive and time consuming.  So when it becomes time to buy another medical device, customers may prefer to buy more of an older device than to face requalification on the newer device.  This also increases the demand for the older products.

Where can you get older parts?  Customers have two choices.  The gray market may be a solution.  Unfortunately, many of these parts are counterfeit.  Even if they are the correct device type, they are frequently used parts that are re-marked as new parts.  We have seen x-rays of a lot of 80C186EB devices that identified 3 different lead frames and two different die, which would never occur in a legitimate manufacturing lot.  Another consideration with parts from the gray market is that many processors with EEPROM have a maximum number of write cycles.  With a used part, there is no way of knowing how many write cycles are left, which is a serious reliability problem.  And reliability problems are the last think a medical customer needs.

Fortunately, medical regulations allow for the inclusion of a second sourced part, and that allows our customers to use Tekmos parts in place of the original parts.  This is why we design our parts to be exact replacements for the original parts.

For more information on inventory or orders, please contact Bob Abrams, Vice President of Sales & Development or call 512-342-9871