AO Semiconductor's products, are they decent ? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 07:15:16 am
content: AO stands for Alpha Omega ->http://www.aosmd.com/Their discrete products for example like mosfets are flooding our local shops and repair shops, and for sure they're dirt cheap.Their parts usually labelled/cross referenced to other popular manufacturers like IRF/Infineon/Fairchild etc, for example at mosfet, they have their own part no like AOxxxx and usually they put at the reel label like FDSxxxx (Fairchild naming scheme) and others as well.Just curious if their stuff is good enough ? Any experiences ?

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 07:25:02 am
content: I've used a couple in designs for medium volume consumer products. No problems at all.

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 07:56:19 am
content: Their manufacturing and supply chain is in the People's Republic of China, but they do some R & D in California, have a wafer plant in the U.S. and sell product in the U.S. Their headquarters is in Bermuda (ie: parent company), which is used as a means to dodge paying taxes in the U.S. See page 24 and 25 of their annual report, dated 30 June 2016 about their risk from the IRS. So from an ethical perspective, I would not deal with them.Annual report here...http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ABEA-4CEDO2/3145650451x0x910376/5C16D855-E887-4F25-9E4E-73078FD0EADF/2016_Annual_Reports_as_Filed.pdf

author: JoeN
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 08:10:12 am
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on November 03, 2016, 07:56:19 amAn Australian is worried that an international company is trying to limit it's exposure to the IRS and you have an ethical problem with them? I didn't think that ranked all that high up the ethical hierarchy along with AP landmine proliferation, prison labor, and blood diamonds. Who wants the IRS sucking the blood out of them when they are selling around the globe? If they were limiting their exposure to the NSA by encrypting their communications would that be an ethical problem for you too?Personally, I would only be worried about product quality.

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 08:36:46 am
content: Never had any problems, including product runs of millions.

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 08:39:33 am
content: Quote from: Ice-Tea on November 03, 2016, 08:36:46 amOk, thats good enough.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 08:42:03 am
content: I've used their low-cost buck regs a few times. At the time only Digikey stocked them but looks like they're now available from a few other sources.

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 09:08:14 am
content: Ok, I'm convinced now, especially Mike didn't say anything bad about it.The reason I asked this is, I had a chit chat with local retail sellers, and they ranted that they are overwhelmed with the fake products from top tier brands, cause now days its so damn hard to tell visually/physically from the genuine ones, as the counterfeits are now perfectly cloned, still working but with much lower spec as we know, while they can't test every products the sell. Oh, they sell various discretes like from SMD up to big ass expensive IGBT modules as well.Although I was not fully convinced, what they told me is, although at leading edge products, AO still can't beat top tier like Infieon/Fairchild/IRF/IXYS, but still, AO's products for mainstream ones are hard to beat when it comes to price/performance compared to those big names.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 09:18:34 am
content: AO parts are very popular in computer hardware products. Probably more popular than sorts of IRF/Infineon/Fairchild

author: JoeN
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 11:09:42 am
content: Quote from: BravoV on November 03, 2016, 09:08:14 amThey wouldn't be if they were ordering them directly from the top tier brands. They are ordering them from some dealer that has been around for 6 months from Shenzhen for less than the manufacturer will sell to them directly and wonder why they get a fake.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 11:14:37 am
content: Very commonly encountered on laptop motherboards, so probably not so bad.

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 11:16:08 am
content: Quote from: JoeN on November 03, 2016, 11:09:42 amYep, I thought so as these are local brick & mortar shops.

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 12:05:18 pm
content: Quote from: JoeN on November 03, 2016, 08:10:12 amThey need to teach ethics in school. If no-one paid their taxes (ie: we were hell-bent of tax avoidance like Apple, Google and Microsoft) our society would fall apart. Only being worried about product quality is a bit shallow I would have thought, but you are entitled to your opinion. If a company isn't going to be a good corporate citizen, they can f*** off, irrespective of quality and price. Unfortunately, few consumers share my views.Regarding ethical companies, this report features how household brand name electronics companies treat their workers...https://baptistworldaid.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Feb16-Electronics-Report-Aus-version-FINAL.pdfAlpha and Omega are not listed of course, but it certainly makes for interesting reading.

author: JoeN
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 01:56:18 pm
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on November 03, 2016, 12:05:18 pmA&O to me seem to be a mostly international company with one facility in the U.S. and a much larger number of facilities in China. It seems like a majority of their sales go right to Chinese OEM manufacturers. All the names on their corporate board seem Chinese. I think a company like that making themselves vulnerable to the capriciousness of the IRS would be stupid beyond belief. Minimizing exposure is smart. If it really was an American company with the most exposure in America like Walmart or McDonalds (and I know they are international too, but their largest exposure is in our country) I would find myself agreeing more with you.From a policy perspective, I don't like taxing companies because of how we have set up open borders. The can GTFO. It makes voters mad, but it makes more sense to tax them (e.g. me). I can't GTFO. And I would like companies to want to do business here instead of GTFO because of low and consistent taxes. Then there wil be jobs and the people can pay their income taxes and run things. After all, they are the ones getting the welfare, as well as the roads and schools and police, etc. The real welfare goes to people, not companies. "Corporate welfare" is almost always a break on an obscenely high tax, not an actual payment. Welfare to losers in society is usually an actual payment.

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 02:36:20 pm
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on November 03, 2016, 07:56:19 amThere are no ethical multinational companies in the long run, at least not using our plebeian type of ethics.

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 03:24:12 pm
content: I frequently find their prices are competitivewhile still offering better performance, mostly in lower voltage MOSFETs (200V?) and regulators.For higher voltages (>= 600V), I still seem to find e.g. ST, Infineon, etc. more often, and for industrial, IXYS, Infineon, Semikron, etc. are still leaders.Tim

author: senso
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 06:18:59 pm
content: Used by the truck load in laptop boards..Asus boards are almost only AO mosfet's in everything power related, MSI also uses them, as does HP(Quanta/Pegatron that make boards for HP, Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba)..Yeah, big player in the market.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2016, 09:58:14 pm
content: I used AOZ1280 buck regulator, as it was the cheapest reg with a high input voltage (3-26V). Efficiency is quite good:http://aosmd.com/res/data_sheets/aoz1280ci.pdfDownside is quiescent current is a little high (1mA), and the datasheet doesn't specify one of the required component values.Its in the reference schematic (C3), but not mentioned anywhere what it should be...

author: juanfermed
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 04, 2016, 03:12:54 am
content: I used one of their general purpose transistors in a production run of around 20K, no issues.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 04, 2016, 10:03:02 pm
content: Quote from: AcHmed99 on November 04, 2016, 12:20:08 amThanks, not sure how I missed that. BST label is missing from the schematic so I must have not processed that.

author: Yansi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 05, 2016, 01:24:49 am
content: Have used a few types of small mosfets from AO (4A 30V or thereabout, both P and N channel) and absolutely nothing wrong with them. Bang on the spec, no problems. And also good price point.