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Brands we like to see in your kit

CopperPCB · October 2, 2026

Chips, connectors and LEDs are the parts that make your board yours, so you choose and send them. If you're choosing, these are the makers we'd pick.

Analog and discrete chips

Op-amps, regulators, voltage references, diodes and transistors. The best analog parts stay in production for decades.

What matters: precision over temperature, long production life, second sources
  • Texas InstrumentsDallas, Texas · 1930

    TI began in 1930 as Geophysical Service, an oil-exploration company, and took the Texas Instruments name in 1951. In 1958 its engineer Jack Kilby built the first integrated circuit, and its 2011 purchase of National Semiconductor added the classic LM parts.

    Why we like them: A huge catalog, deep stock and jellybeans like the TL431 and LM358 that have been in production for decades.

  • Analog DevicesWilmington, Massachusetts · 1965

    MIT graduates Ray Stata and Matthew Lorber founded ADI in Cambridge in 1965. Its first product was an op-amp module the size of a hockey puck. It later acquired Linear Technology (2017) and Maxim (2021), uniting three of the great precision analog houses.

    Why we like them: The best precision op-amps, references and data converters, with honest data on drift over temperature.

  • onsemiScottsdale, Arizona · 1999

    onsemi was spun out of Motorola’s semiconductor business in 1999 and bought Fairchild in 2016. That gave it two of the founding names in transistors: Motorola’s discretes and Fairchild, which pioneered the silicon planar process.

    Why we like them: Reliable, inexpensive, always-available diodes, transistors and MOSFETs.

Connectors

Connectors are where most field failures happen. The plastic, plating and retention latch matter more than the price.

What matters: mating cycles, retention, plating quality
  • MolexLisle, Illinois · 1938

    Frederick Krehbiel founded Molex in 1938 to make flowerpots and salt shakers from a plastic he mixed from asbestos tailings, coal tar pitch and limestone. It turned out to be a great electrical insulator, and the company that took its name went on to make connectors for nearly every kind of electronics.

    Why we like them: Micro-Fit and PicoBlade families that are proven, latching and easy to source.

  • TE ConnectivityHarrisburg, Pennsylvania · 1941

    TE grew out of AMP, which Uncas Whitaker started in New Jersey in 1941 as Aircraft-Marine Products. It made crimped, solderless terminals for aircraft and boat builders and moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1943.

    Why we like them: Rugged, sealed, high-reliability connectors for automotive and industrial work.

  • JSTOsaka, Japan · 1957

    Japan Solderless Terminal was founded in 1957 to make crimp terminals. Its PH, XH and SH series became the default wire-to-board connectors for small electronics.

    Why we like them: Cheap, compact and universally recognized. Customers can buy mating cables anywhere.

LEDs

A good LED stays the same color and brightness from board to board and over years of use.

What matters: tight color binning, long lumen life
  • NichiaAnan, Japan · 1956

    Nobuo Ogawa founded Nichia in 1956 to make phosphors for fluorescent lamps. He backed his engineer Shuji Nakamura’s research into gallium nitride, which produced the first bright blue LED in 1993, made white LEDs possible and earned Nakamura a share of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics. The Ogawa family still owns the majority of the company.

    Why we like them: Unmatched color consistency and lifetime.

  • ams OSRAMMunich, Germany · 1919

    The OSRAM name, from osmium and wolfram (German for tungsten), was registered in 1906 for light bulbs. The company was formed in 1919 when Auer, Siemens and AEG merged their lighting businesses. It is now part of ams OSRAM.

    Why we like them: Bright, efficient LEDs with automotive-grade reliability.

  • Lite-OnTaipei, Taiwan · 1975

    Raymond Soong and a group of former Texas Instruments engineers founded Lite-On in 1975. It was Taiwan’s first LED maker and, in 1983, the first technology company listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

    Why we like them: The workhorse indicator LED: consistent, inexpensive and always in stock.

Looking for the free parts? Resistors, capacitors, inductors and ferrite beads come from our stock. See whose parts we load →

Bring the chips. We'll bring the jellybeans.

Jellybeans $0, published rates for everything else. Made in the US with world-class ingredients.

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