News & Events

Japan, Korea PCB makers shifting production focus to IC substrates

PCB makers in Japan and South Korea have been shifting production focus to IC substrates from segments of traditional multi-layer rigid boards and even higher-end HDI, flexible PCB and rigid-flex boards, where Taiwan players are building dominance and Chinese peers gaining presence, according to industry sources.

Japan's PCB makers used to dominate the flexible board segment for consumer applications, but the dominance has been crippled by increasingly strong presence of Taiwan's Zhen Ding Technology in the supply chain of Apple devices, forcing them to tap higher-end applications such as healthcare and automotive electronics. But poor sales performance in the new applications sent Japan's major FPCB makers Mektron and CMK experiencing a tough year in 2020.

In contrast, Japan's IC substrate suppliers Ibiden and Shinko Electric posted significant revenue increases in 2020 due to strong shipments of ABF substrates for processing HPC chips and CMOS image sensor (COS) chips. Both firms will continue to invest heavily in capacity expansion for ABF substrates, which will account for over 30% of Japan's PCB output value this year, the sources said.

Korea's major PCB makers LG Innotek, Semco, and Daeduck Electronics have quit production of HDI boards or rigid-flex boards in recent years, focusing more on production of BT-based FCCSP substrates for processing handset SoCs and 5G transmission chips, as well as AiP substrates and RF module substrates. IC substrates are expected to grow soon to command over 30% of PCB production value in Korea, the sources noted.

By DIGITIMES

Link:https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20210319PD208.html?mod=3&q=IC

商品分類

最新訊息