"This is a critical situation in that numerous manufacturing fabs that use this chemical are unable to get adequate supplies, which results in slow downs," said Jelinek. "This is rapidly turning into a very concerning issue."

Ford noted that three Japanese facilities that make silicon have not yet been able to return to operation since the earthquake hit on March 11.

"Corresponding wafer manufacturers are scrambling right now to qualify alternative sources," added Ford. "Most manufacturers have a three-to-four-week supply of wafers on site. We can probably count on three to four weeks where we'll have some impact on production until companies get alternative sources of silicon."

Ford also pointed out that the production of Apple's highly popular iPad tablets could be affected by the disaster since production of four components, like the WiFi module and touch-screen controller, needed to build them have been hurt.

"In the production of equipment, you can't have 94% of the parts," said Ford. "You need 100% of the parts to build any device."