Mobile phone routers are prices? WiFi chip prices have quadrupled.

According to a Netcom chip supplier, August 11 (2021), the price of Wi-Fi chips used in the terminal rose to about $17 in the third quarter, five times the price of the price of $3.50 last year.

Now, the shortage of rising prices has spread to almost the entire semiconductor industry, and the supply of Wi-Fi module chips has been scarce for a period of time. In March, Netcom chip giant Broad Com notified customers that the chip delivery cycle would be extended to more than a year. In this context, the downstream computer terminal manufacturers have opened the hoarding mode.

Previously, when Taiwanese industrial computer companies could only cost about 1,000 Wi-Fi chips a month, now they demand thousands a month. Each computer business is in the order to grab capacity, in case after facing no core available, had to temporarily suspend production situation.

Currently, many devices are upgrading from Wi-Fi 5 to Wi-Fi 6, which is a significant improvement over the former, which also puts higher requirements on Wi-Fi chips. At this time, consumers are more willing to buy devices that support Wi-Fi 6 capabilities. The demand for Wi-Fi 6 chips is huge, which is one reason for the price increase of Wi-Fi chips.

The Wi-Fi 6 supports all ISM bands at 1-6GHz and is downward compatible with multiple previous generation standards. With multiple people sharing a Wi-Fi 6 router, the transmission rate of Wi-Fi 6 can be 37% higher than Wi-Fi 5, and the latency can be reduced by 75%, which will bring a significant improvement in the user experience. The Wi-Fi 6 also has higher requirements for chips. As the transmission rate increases, the chip does not produce too much heat, which requires the chip to adopt a more advanced manufacturing process to improve the power performance of the chip.

Nowadays, all industries are facing the problem of lack of core, intelligent vehicles and other industries are serious lack of core, many car companies should be for the lack of core shutdown for a period of time. Manufacturers such as TSMC are built new production lines to meet the needs of such industries, while areas such as Wi-Fi chips may have to wait. Wi-Fi chips are expected to rise for some time, and downstream computer prices are likely to rise slightly.