Electronic Discovery Supply Chain Problems

The worldwide disruption in supply chains is impacting hardware used in electronic discovery. Solid state drives are in short supply for more than one reason. ABF (Ajinomoto Build-up Film) substrate is an insulation material used to protect chips. A Fortune Magazine article posted here, notes that Intel, Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom all have had trouble getting a sufficient supply of the substrate.

Silicon wafers are needed for semiconductors. They form a base for integrated circuits. Semiconductor Engineering reported in September 2021 that, "Today, buyers of silicon wafers of many types face tight supply with rising average selling prices.".

Controllers for solid state drives are processors that run software. The power outages in Texas forced Samsung to shut down some of its SSD controller factories, according to Tom's Hardware.

There's a shortage of microchips across the board. Bloomberg has reported : "Lead times for Broadcom Inc.— a barometer for the industry because of its involvement across the supply chain—extended to 22.2 weeks, up from 12.2 weeks in February 2020."