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EPTE Newsletter from Japan - INTERNEPCON 2007

Topics of the Week

INTERNEPCON 2007 (Part III)

This is part three of my observations from the 36th InterNepcon held at Tokyo Big Sight from January 17th through January 19th.   There was little representation from the rigid board and flexible circuit manufacturers, and the technologies presented were not too unique.  On the other hand, equipment manufacturers introduced a lot of new machines with innovative ideas, but the machines were not designed for major manufacturing processes.   They do not accommodate the entire circuit board manufacturing process, but they will provide some value added improvements for labor consuming processes such as blanking and supplemental treatments.

UHT, a unique punching machine manufacturer introduced a couple of new punching machines for high accuracy trimming of the connector insertion part for high density flexible circuits. UHT also showcased and new YAG laser machine for the perimeter routing of small circuit boards with a high dimensional accuracy. This machine could be productive for the blanking and piercing processes for the prototype production or small volume production of the HDI printed circuits.

Beac, a flexible circuit's equipment manufacturer presented a new assembly machine for consumer flexible circuit stiffeners. The machine punches out a stiffener board for a roll and places it in the correct position on the rolled flexible circuits. The stiffeners do not provide a major function for the flexible circuits, but they do consume a major part of the manufacturing costs. The new roll to roll machine is not the absolute answer for the various flexible circuits' stiffener structures, but if it meets with the approval of customers, it will reduce the processing cost significantly.

MCK, a major machine manufacturer for laminating processes has developed a robot for the sheet process of flexible circuits.  Usually, thin flexible sheets are managed with a leader board during the wet process.  Some flexible circuit manufacturers must attach and remove the leader boards manually, while others developed semi-automatic machines.  It is very common for the thin materials to be slightly damaged by rough handling.  This significantly reduces the yields.  MCK's new machine solves this problem by attaching and removing the leader boards automatically.  This will reduce labor costs and increase the process yield.    

I did not see all of the equipment manufacturers who participated in the exhibition; there could be more new machines I missed.  These machines do not change the manufacturing processes drastically, and probably are not considered noteworthy at the major technical conferences or in the industrial magazines. Not even circuit manufacturers talk about them very much.  However, Japanese manufacturers are continuously introducing and refining new machines and tools. Their total contribution to the evolution of the machines is remarkable. It is one of the reasons Japanese circuit board manufacturers are competitive even though manufacturing in Japan has the highest labor cost in the world.

Dominique Numakura, DKN Research (dnumakura@dknresearch.com)

Headlines of the week

1.      TDFJ (JV of Teijin and Du Pont in Japan) 1/15

Will commercialize the next generation conductive film this year.

2.      Taiyo Ink (Major resist ink supplier in Japan) 1/15

Expect 50% growth of the materials of flat panel this year to 10 billion yens revenue.

3.      Hitachi Chemical (Electronics material supplier in Japan) 1/15

Has developed a new film type optical guide for the high-speed transmission of the next generation circuit boards. Hitachi plans to commercialize it in the next several years.

4.      Nikko Metals (Major copper material supplier in Japan) 1/15

Has developed a new catalyzed bonding process "Catalyst Bond" for the IC substrate manufacturing process.

5.      SEAJ (Semiconductor manufacturers organization in Japan) 1/16

Expects double digits growth in 2007 and 2008 for the demands of semiconductor manufacturing equipment in Japan.

6.      Sharp (Major electronics company in Japan) 1/16

Has developed a new CCD camera module with 7 million pixels for the small size digital cameras.

7.      Audio manufacturers in Japan 1/16

Have been planning to commercialize a lot of new car audio systems compatible for iPod systems in 2007.

8.      Nikko Metals (Major copper product supplier in Japan) 1/16

Will invest 6 billion yens for the recycling business of the rare metals including gold, silber, Sn and Bi.

9.      Dai-Nippon Printing (Major printing company in Japan) 1/16

Has developed a new multi-layer technology with embedded passive and active chips for the cellular phones.

10.   Hitachi Chemical (Major electronics material supplier in Japan) 1/17

Has developed a new surface treatment process for the copper conductors of the HDI circuit boards. The new process provide smooth surface with good bond strength.

11.   Yamanashi Avionics (Middle class BWB manufacturer in Japan) 1/17

Has developed a new high speed multi-layer board over 1GHz assuming the market of telecommunication and measuring equipments.

12.  Taiyo Ink (Solder mask material supplier in Japan) 1/18

Has developed a new white color solder resist for the HDI circuit boards designed for the LED supporting circuit boards.

13.  Nikko Metals (Major copper product supplier in Japan) 1/19

Reduced the standard price of the copper again to 710 thousand yens per ton. Nikko reduced the price 40 thousand yens in the last one week.

Interesting literatures about the packaging industry

Articles of DKN Research

1. . New "2006 Global Material Projection for Flex Circuit" DKN Research, October, 2006. http://www.dknresearch.com/Products.html

2. "Introduction for the Printed Circuit Boards of Car Electronics, Flexible Circuits", (Japanese only), Dominique Numakura, Nikkan Kogyo Shinbun, June, 2006, 2400 yens.

3. New "The latest semiconductor package, Part XXI, Teardown Analysis of FDD, CD Drive", Dominique Numakura, Electronics Packaging Technology, January, 2007 

4. "Five Year Projection of the Global Flexible Circuit Market" Robert Turunen, Dominique Numakura and James J. Hickman, The Board Authority, Volume 7, August, 2006

5. "Technical Trends and Market Projection of the Materials for the Flexible Circuits", (Japanese only) Dominique Numakura, Denshi Zairyo, October, 2006

6. "Leading Edge Material and Application of Polyimide (Materials for the Advance Flexible Circuits)", Dominique Numakura, CMC publication, August, 2006

7. New "Business Trends and Technology Trends of the HDI Flexible Circuits -

Roadmap for the Ultra High-Density Advanced Flexible Circuits", Dominique Numakura, KPCA, October 31, 2006

From the Major Industry Magazines

1. "Innovative Solutions for Leading Edge Designs", George Milad and Mario Orduz, CircuiTree, January, 2007.

2. "Finding hidden Placement Problems - Recalibrating equipment improves placement yields", Kary Voegele, Circuits Assembly, December, 2006.

3. "Screen Printing in the Dawn of Fuel Cells", Darren Brown, SMT, December, 2006

4. "Laminate Material Selection for RoHS ASSEMBLY, Part 2", Ed Kelley and Erik Bergum, Printed Circuit Design & Manufacturing, December, 2006.

5. "Innovations in Computer Tomography, 3-D X-ray Inspection has Arrived", David Bernard, Advanced Packaging, November/December, 2006

6. "From Chips to Systems via Packaging - A Comparison of IBM's Mainframe Servers", Hubert Harrer, George A. Katopis and Wiren Becker, IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine, 4th Quarter, 2006

7. "Under the Hood-Latest DESIGN GEMS Unearthed",  presented by EE Times and techonline, December 2006