Micron: DDR5 deficiency is not caused by lack of dram chips

According to Micron, the shortage of DDR5 modules is caused by a shortage of components other than memory chips. This would mainly concern voltage regulators, which prevent the manufacturer from meeting the demand for DDR5 modules.

While discussing its quarterly earnings, the company said that the demand for DDR5 modules is significantly higher than the supply. The supply is limited by what Micron calls ‘non-memory components’: it would produce enough dram chips. According to Toms Hardware, the non-memory components would mainly concern PMICs, the power management integrated circuits and on-module VRMs, or voltage regulating modules. Those components are new to DDR5 modules, which regulate their own voltage. Earlier modules, such as DDR4 memory, use voltage regulators on the motherboard. The shortage of DDR5 modules will certainly continue until the second half of 2022 due to the shortages. The company will not be able to increase production until the second half of 2022.

The shortages also appear to be related to the popularity of Intel’s Alder Lake CPUs, which would cause demand for DDR5 modules to be greater than expected. As a result, there would not be enough components to make DDR5 dimms. To solve the problems, Micron tries to enter into “strategic agreements” with the makers of certain components.

Tom’s Hardware already wrote in November about the shortage of PMICs and VRMs, and that this could be the cause of the DDR5 shortages. DDR5 is the first generation of memory where the pmic are built on the module, instead of on the motherboard. Tom’s Hardware describes that there are few pmic manufacturers, and that all these companies have had to increase production due to the increasing demand for DDR5 modules, but that this takes a lot of extra time. It can take up to 35 weeks for a memory manufacturer to receive these modules. Due to the shortage, pmics for DDR5 are in some cases ten times more expensive than pmics used on motherboards for DDR4.