Free sample chips!

If you don’t know it, read below how to obtain free chips.

Many semiconductor companies offer free sample chips or other electronics products that they produce and send them to your home for free (without even post fees). This is a marketing technique. When someone orders some sample chips from them and designs his circuit with it, then in the commercial product they will use their chip again. Having this in mind they know that at the end they are well-off. Bellow is a list of companies that send free samples chips with online order:


Texas Instruments -> http://www.ti.com/

Maxim - Dallas Semiconductors -> **broken link removed**

Microchip -> http://www.microchip.com/

Sensirion -> http://www.sensirion.com/ (temperature & humidity sensor)

ATMEL -> http://www.atmel.com/

Fairchild -> http://www.fairchildsemi.com/

Ramtron -> http://www.ramtron.com/

Analog Devices -> **broken link removed**

Bourns -> http://www.bourns.com/

National Semiconductor -> **broken link removed**

Xicor -> http://www.xicor.com/

Clare -> http://www.clare.com

RF Microwaves -> http://www.rfmd.com

FTD -> http://www.FTDIchip.com (USB Chips)

Allegro -> http://www.allegromicro.com

VLSI Solution -> http://www.vlsi.fi (mp3 chips)

MicroSemi -> http://www.microsemi.com

Princeton -> **broken link removed**

AVX (only passive components) -> www.avxcorp.com/RequestSample.asp

California Micro Devices -> www.calmicro.com/contact_us/samples_request.html

Catalyst Semiconductor -> www.catsemi.com/iko_bld_page.cfm?id=47

Cypress semiconductor -> www.cypress.com/support/mysupport.cfm

Infenion -> www.infineon.com/cgi/ecrm.dll/jsp/showfrontend.do?lang=EN&channel_oid=-11224

Ramton -> www.ramtron.com/products/productsOptInEmail.asp

Sipex -> www.sipex.com/support/samples_literature.cfm

Steward (ferrites, inductive products etc.) -> www.steward.com/Sample_Request.asp

Supertex -> **broken link removed**

ALSO A BULK LIST:

http://www.reptron.com/di/Sample.asp
**broken link removed** http://www.larsenassociates.com/cac.html
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http://www.chesrep.com/page2.htm
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http://www.murata-europe.com/contact/samples.html
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http://www.molex.com
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http://www.astrorep.com/NYsubweb/orderform.htm
http://www.xicor.com/form_sample_requests.php
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http://www.sager.com/
http://www.marshall.com/
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http://www.atmel.com/atmel/samples/
http://www.onsemi.com
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http://www.centralsemi.com
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http://www.fairchildsemi.com/
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http://www.ti.com
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http://www.foxonline.com/forms/noncryqu_4X.asp
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http://www.murata-europe.com/contact/samples.html
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http://www.semtech.com/press/pa_082401.html
http://www.analog.com/productSelection/orderSamples/index.html
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http://www.mxcom.com

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http://www.heyco.com/sample.htm
http://www.elantec.com/pages/samples.html
**broken link removed**
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http://www.aboveboardelectronics.com/craftechmain.htm


The first four semiconductor companies are the best in sending chip samples.
If you know more companies that offers samples post their site.


Tips:

When you visit a company’s site usually you don’t find the samples order page very easily.

You must search and navigate thought their products and find a “samples order” button.

Always put your name, address etc clearly

Not all products can be ordered as samples

:-\ Every company has its own web design (some are more complex than other) so don’t give up with the first look. Make a good navigation.

FTD -> https://www.FTDIchip.com

can you tell me where exactly one can order samples from this company, i turned the entire site upside-down and i couldnt find a sample order form anywhere.

Check this:

**broken link removed**

Maybe you must contact them directly via e-mail.

where for samples on Princeton? Thx in advance,

I requested a number of samples from maxim about 1.5 weeks ago ... they sent me a couple emails about my order being received and processed, but haven't seen anything in the mail yet

I dug into the their availability website, and one of the components has a lead time of 20 weeks for any quanity (they had 1, 100, 1000, 100000) listed.

I guess I wont be using it for any experiments any time soon.

just a note... just because they say they have "samples" does not mean that they are FREE samples... the place with the mp3 decoder chips directed me to a site where I could purchase samples.
looks like the FTDI chips are also purchased samples (directing you to dontronics)

they're just called samples because they're available in single-unit quantities, versus the hundreds or thousands of chips you'd have to buy if you bought at standard quantities.

were are thesamples on https://www.sensirion.com/

colin886 said:

were are thesamples on https://www.sensirion.com/

Click to expand...

contact the regional sales office for your area, feed 'em a good story, maybe you'll get some freebies?

What are the elligibility for ordering samples from Microchip?
Can anyone order free samples from Microchip?

@mathgeek: As long as you are not making IEDs (Improvised explosive devices) or reside in a country that the US has sanctions on, you are eligible for free microchip. I am a high school student and they have been great about samples!

Oh and one that is not on that list that I know of is freescale semiconductor.

@glmcell: Thats odd... The ones I have ordered get there in a week or list. They Will send you an email if the product is backordered. Ex. I ordered a MAX232 3 months ago and it hasn't gotten here yet. I ordered the MAX3110 two weeks ago and it got here last week. The backorder email usually includes a date they will ship I believe. You might want to check for it.

glmclell said:

I requested a number of samples from maxim about 1.5 weeks ago ... they sent me a couple emails about my order being received and processed, but haven't seen anything in the mail yet

I dug into the their availability website, and one of the components has a lead time of 20 weeks for any quanity (they had 1, 100, 1000, 100000) listed.

I guess I wont be using it for any experiments any time soon.

Click to expand...

I too requested a samples from Maxim 2 weeks ago and got an email saying that it needed business manager confirmation before shipping...and have heard nothing since.

freeskier89 said:

@mathgeek: As long as you are not making IEDs (Improvised explosive devices) or reside in a country that the US has sanctions on, you are eligible for free microchip. I am a high school student and they have been great about samples!

Oh and one that is not on that list that I know of is freescale semiconductor.

@glmcell: Thats odd... The ones I have ordered get there in a week or list. They Will send you an email if the product is backordered. Ex. I ordered a MAX232 3 months ago and it hasn't gotten here yet. I ordered the MAX3110 two weeks ago and it got here last week. The backorder email usually includes a date they will ship I believe. You might want to check for it.

Click to expand...

Well, I am a student myself, and when you register, what email did you use? Should I use my school email (which I am reluctant to use, because I seldom check it. I would much prefer my Yahoo email, which I check 3 times a day, but Microchip stated that it does not accept generic emails like Yahoo.)

So how did you register and what email did you use?

microchip doesn't support generic email address like yahoo & hotmail .. i tried it yesterday .

akg said:

microchip doesn't support generic email address like yahoo & hotmail .. i tried it yesterday .

Click to expand...

Quite right too! - if you don't have a proper email address how can you expect to be taken seriously?.

Nigel Goodwin said:

Quite right too! - if you don't have a proper email address how can you expect to be taken seriously?.

Click to expand...

if i have a 'proper' email id..how can they be sure that i'm serious ?

The sample request also contains a valid telephone no: which they can dial and see(?) to make sure of the interest.

if i have a 'proper' email id..how can they be sure that i'm serious?

The sample request also contains a valid telephone no: which they can dial and see(?) to make sure of the interest.

Click to expand...

THey can be more sure than if you have a hotmail or yahoo account. They did not begin to offer samples with the goal of saving some hobbiest a few dollars, it is meant as courtesy and incentive for design engineers to use their products- who on earth would use their home phone number for business transactions? Same thing goes for email addresses.

And you don't really expect for them to dial every single person long-distance do you? Either way, you can tell more from looking at an email domain than at a phone number. They don't need your business so badly that they will pay an employee to spend time making long distance phone calls to beg you to try some of their samples. Making samples available is a courtesy, not a right. They do it at their sole discretion since you aren't paying anything and therefore they have no obligation to you and can do nothing if they wish.

They tend to be receptive to students trying to do projects, but if you give them a hard time and make them do extra work to process your sample, they'll just drop it. It's not their problem if you don't get your free parts.

I recently ordered some samples from Microchip without problem. The samples are actually going to be used as development ICs for a project I'm working on, which I suppose you could call "hobbyist", and there were no problems for me. But then I do work in Electronics so that may have swayed their decision. I was just truthful and upfront about why I wanted to order the samples, and the next day they activated my account for me.

Brian

MathGeek said:

Well, I am a student myself, and when you register, what email did you use? Should I use my school email (which I am reluctant to use, because I seldom check it. I would much prefer my Yahoo email, which I check 3 times a day, but Microchip stated that it does not accept generic emails like Yahoo.)

So how did you register and what email did you use?

Click to expand...

I used my email from my ISP, and it works fine. If I were you, I would use your school email. They rarely email me anything but confirmation emails saying the products have been shipped. Some companies require that you click on a link in the email to confirm your order, but so far Microchip isn't one of them. I gave them a cell number for a phone that rarely leaves my basement, and it seems to be fine .

I think that if you honest, and say what you are doing with the samples, I think they will have little problem with sending the parts. I do not order 4 of every different part like they say you can and that may help. So far I have had great support from Microchip.

I'm in front of making my first free sample order from Microchip, (PIC18 uC for learning and hobby purposes) and would like to know how to fill out the following fields.

Industry:
Application Category:
Project Description:
Production Target Date:
Current Design Stage:
Annual Production Qty:
Preferred Distributor:

I'm in big trouble with "Annual Production Qty:" and "Production Target Date: "

Thanks!