Timeline for Future Support For K64F Series?

[FernRidgeSystemsEng]

Hi, NXP community.

~3 years ago, I started to do some development on little projects using the FRDM-K64F boards. After many surprises, I am finally getting back to these projects now but I am concerned that even if I quickly do prototyping and testing, that NXP may soon discontinue the K64F series since, IIRC, it's been in production since 2014(?). 

While I understand that business conditions may change, sometimes very quickly, would it be possible to get an estimate for the future support for the NXP's K64F, as well as the FRDM-K64F boards themselves?

Thank you for any help on this subject and have a good day.

[Robin_Shen]

Hi 

Product Longevity will show you the Remains in Longevity Program of K64 is until Jan 2029: 

Best Regards,
Robin
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[FernRidgeSystemsEng]

Great, thank you!

Follow up question:

Does NXP/Freescale have any plans for strengthening the supply chains for their IC manufacturing, in light of recent political (tariffs) and weather (extreme flooding in some regions) events?

I have heard horror stories of whole product lines getting put on several-month-long production holds because of a disaster in a specific region of the world.

How can systems-integration-level companies/designers be confident that NXP ICs will be available for product production into the near-to-mid future (1-6 years)? Are there any plans for NXP IC manufacturing lines to be routed through Republic of Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Europe or North America? Do you all have some kind of data available to customers that would show this kind of robustness in supply lines -- maybe something like a spreadsheet that lists products and all countries that they are manufactured in, ex. in a very reliable scenario a product may be manufactured in, say, Shenzhen, Republic of Korean and also in a US state.

Thank you for any help with this.

[myke_predko]

@FernRidgeSystemsEng 

It's a great question but make sure that you understand that there could be three or more entities involved in device assembly.  There is the fab where the chips are made along with the packager which wires the chips to the leadframe and then encapsulates everything in epoxy potting compound which then goes to the testing house.  It's not unusual for the three different steps to take place on different continents - ideally a company like NXP should have their own fabs, packaging facilities along with test in one location, but things don't work like that (anymore).  

According to my FAE, some Kinetis chips (wafers) will be available from fab in late March/early April but they will have to go through packaging and test - so best case we're waiting until this time next year for new product from NXP.  

We're in a really bad situation.  

[FernRidgeSystemsEng]

Thanks for the great explanation, Myke! I haven't been involved with the manufacturing side of things for some time now and I didn't realize those steps could happen on 3 separate continents.

[bobpaddock]

What is the point in having a longevity program good to 2029 when it is impossible to buy parts today?
We are being quoted delivery times of 2023.

Makes the whole point of the program meaningless.