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 -> http://www.maxim-ic.com/

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 -> http://www.analogdevices.com/

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

National Semiconductor -> http://www.national.com/

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

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

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

Wilcocorp -> http://www.wilcocorp.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 -> http://www.princeton.com.tw/index-e.htm

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 -> http://www.supertex.com

A BULK LIST:

http://www.reptron.com/di/Sample.asp
http://www.bivar.com/html/contact.html
http://www.larsenassociates.com/cac.html
http://www.riaelectronic.com/samples.asp
http://www.sunled.com/RequestInfo/SamplesRequest.htm
http://www.aboveboardelectronics.com/thomasandbetts/tandborder.htm
http://www.mill-max.com/home/index.html
http://www.chesrep.com/page2.htm
http://www.raltron.com/products/request.asp
http://www.meritekusa.com/webpages/sample_request.htm
http://www.murata-europe.com/contact/samples.html
http://www.camcar.textron.com
http://www.clarostat.com/SampleRe.nsf/SampReq?OpenForm
http://www.molex.com
http://www.kycon.com/Form_Samples.html
http://www.azmicrotek.com/samples.html
http://www.astrorep.com/NYsubweb/orderform.htm
http://www.xicor.com/form_sample_requests.php
http://www.fmgelectronics.ie/sample.htm
http://www.electec.com/samples.html
http://www.bhelectronics.com/transformer-qtrpak-request.html
http://www.sager.com/
http://www.marshall.com/
http://www.lambind.com/request.shtml
https://www.edgecards.com/ordersamples.php
http://www.tamweb.com/
http://www.promor.com/requesta.htm
http://www.burr-brown.com/
http://www.crystal.com/
http://www.philipslogic.com/order/sample/
http://www.centralsemi.com
http://www.cirrus.com/design/products/samples/
http://www.littelfuse.com/Products/samplesElect.asp
http://www.foxonline.com/forms/noncryqu_4X.asp
http://www.fastenersforelectronics.com/electronics/NRelect.html
http://www.murata-europe.com/contact/samples.html
http://www.vitelelectronics.com/ulinear.htm
http://www.semtech.com/press/pa_082401.html
http://www.okw.co.uk/catalogue/sample/sample_form.htm
http://www.carlingtech.com/contact/quote.asp
http://www.mxcom.com
http://www.smdinc.com/products/index.html
http://www.agere.com/pmap/requests.html
http://www.heyco.com/sample.htm
http://www.elantec.com/pages/samples.html
http://www.teknational.com/form_response.html
http://www.fciconnect.com/basics/basics_america/basics_america_01.asp
http://www.bptfittings.com/Cust_Service/SamplesForm12.html
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:

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

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

Cheesy Always put your name, address etc clearly

Shocked Not all products can be ordered as samples

Undecided 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.

nice. :-)
I have successfully received 5 samples of XTR101 2 wire transmitter IC in the past from Burrbrown ( each Ic when brought from a legal source costs around Rs.900!!). So these guys are really serious about their marketing. If ur request is really genuine then they are there to support u.But they usually prefer sending samples of ICs which have been launched recently and are not that popular as yet.

even students can try sending their request for some samples of newly introduced ICs by these manufacturers by sending a request duly attested by the HOD of their department and having all neccesary details like contactno./address/institution and the project details . This procedure was done by one of my batchmates in college some years back (in 1996) to request for a DTMF decoder IC by some manufacturer from taiwan and they gladly obliged by sending all the requested ICs.

keep ur request as authentic as possible for best results.
:-)

Thanks Pdi33 for this more elaborated advice

i had seen this list long back (2005) posted on electro-tech-online.com

http://www.electro-tech-online.com/datasheet-parts-requests/17220-list-companies-providing-free-samples.html

Majority of the companies offer free samples only to engineers of Companies and you are required to furnish:
1. project details( full description)
2. prototype date
3. annual consumption
4. mass production date
5. company email id, homepage, no: of employees working
6. End application/use etc

They require email id with company domain name like for eg : [email protected]. No generic email ids like @yahoo.com, hotmail, gmail etc.are entertained

samples are subject to business managers' approval and also their local distributor calls up/visits and conforms whether the details provided are genuine

the sample may be free but you may have to bear the shipping charges, customs , handling charges and you'll soon find that you,ve spent 10 times or more the price of the sample.

95% of the above companies have this policy. and the business managers can easily identify who's a student and who's a prospective client


Arun

They require email id with company domain name like for eg : [email protected]. No generic email ids like @yahoo.com, hotmail, gmail etc.are entertained

samples are subject to business managers' approval and also their local distributor calls up/visits and conforms whether the details provided are genuine

the sample may be free but you may have to bear the shipping charges, customs , handling charges and you'll soon find that you,ve spent 10 times or more the price of the sample.

Arun Kumar V

my goodness, .......that info is really disheartening. maybe the manufacturers were conned a little too often to take such steps....
i think i was really lucky because at the time i ordered the samples ( around 2002-2003),all the above mentioned conditions by arun were void....my company did not have a website so the mail id was [email protected], nobody verified the details and the goods were delivered at my doorstep through fed-ex. though the courier came thro' a franchisee,the courier fellow tried to con me by telling me that i have to pay Rs.300 as import duty when the document supporting the package clearly mentioned that all duties were paid by the addressee except any local duties ( like octroi). So i refused to pay and the courier fellow did not even fuss about it.In short i got the samples totally free !dance .

It is a different issue that i successfully developed a product using it and sold more than 500 pieces till date so in totality, both parties profitted...

Yeah pdi33, things have changed a lot and the companies had enough of fictitious clients
and effective way to filter fake clients is by asking for company domain email-id and company website.

so the "party" is over for unreal samplers


Arun

so there will be no free samples for students ?? :-s

unfortunately, the answer to that is a yes as the samples are for promotion and not for research. But if ur requirement is for a special newly launched IC , u can try the procedure i mentioned above and u might just be lucky.

thanks pdi33. can you tell me which of the above site give totally free samples, i mean no duties or shipping charges.

what kind of IC you are looking for?