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EPTE Newsletter from Japan - TPCA Show 2007

The Taiwan Printed Circuit Association (TPCA) hosted its annual trade show today at the Taipei World Trade Center. TPCA Show 2007 lasted three days, and included the E Assembly Expo and other related events simultaneously organized within the venue to display their latest technologies and products. Over 300 companies and organizations reserved booths, and many foreign companies partnered with major trading companies to display their goods, therefore, total attendants at the exhibition numbered over 400. The floor of the main building overflowed with exhibitors, and TPCA had to prepare another floor next to the main building to accommodate the spillover.

The TPCA Show has evolved into the largest exhibition for the PCB and related industry support in Asia (excluding Japan). Many engineers and buyers from printed circuits manufacturers in Taiwan visited the exhibition. I recognized many foreign visitors from Japan, North America and Europe, and even some foreign visitors from Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and India. The TPCA Show may have more foreign visitors than the JPCA Show in Japan. The JPCA Show is still larger than the TPCA Show and holds its position as the technical leader in the industry; however, the TPCA Show could have bragging rights as the business center for the global PWB industry.

Visitor's expectations were low relative to uncovering new technologies, but most were interested in discovering lower cost materials and manufacturing equipment. They are not loyal to Taiwanese materials and equipment manufacturers, but will shop their needs from other countries. Suppliers and manufacturers from China receive most of the business and inquiries.

Colleges and institutes reserved prime spaces to display their new technologies and chronicle their technical studies, and also provided an historical record for the PWB industry. Their booths indulged the newbie in the industry, as well as industry outsiders who wanted to learn more.

The TPCA provided statistical and historical data from the global printed circuits industry in Taiwan, and also other major PWB manufacturing markets including Mainland China. The numerical data is valuable because it lists the manufacturing amounts from China and Taiwan separately, so the data is more trustworthy. Most market research reports double count the number of Taiwanese manufacturers and those flagged as "made in China" from foreign companies. This kind of Industry knowledge is valuable to help us understand market situations and predict future trends within the industry. This is one of the reasons I believe Taiwan will become the business center for the global PWB or electronics business.

One unlucky bit of timing for the exhibition was the historically huge typhoon approaching the Taipei area during the week. TPCA decided to close the exhibition a half hour earlier and asked exhibitors to clean and vacate their booths before midnight. Many people returned home Friday afternoon, and attendance counts were minimal on Friday afternoon (usually, the last day is the busiest day at the exhibition). Exhibitors began closing up after 3:00 p.m.; however, many resilient Taiwanese sales people were still hustling and negotiating deals while others were breaking down their booths. The typhoon landed on Northern Taiwan Saturday afternoon bringing with it heavy rains and strong winds, and leaving serious damage to the area.

I visited one PWB manufacturer in the Taipei area for a meeting on Saturday (many employees and management worked during the typhoon). Company management guaranteed the delivery of products by the end of the week. The president of the company finally dismissed employees, asking them to travel by taxicabs instead of their small motor cycles. Soon after, the sales manager loaded products into a car, and left the company in the stormy weather to deliver them to a customer in the next providence; another example of Taiwanese PWB manufacturers showing their tenacity and toughness.

(The TPCA report will be continued.)

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

Headlines of the week

(Please contact haverhill@dknreseach.com  for further information of the news.)

1. Yano Market Research (Market Research Firm in Japan) 10/1

Global OLED market grew only 1.7% in 2006 because of serious price down at sub-display applications of cellular phones.

2. Yano Market Research (Market Research Firm in Japan) 10/1

Global market of organic EL as the light source will grow to 500 billion yens by 2012.

3. Toko (Major passive device manufacturer in Japan) 10/1

Has developed a new small size wireless LAN module (6.5 x 10 x 1.4 mm, 40% smaller) using embedded WCSP substrates.

4. Toshiba (Major electronics company in Japan) 10/1

Has developed a new small size SMOS camera introducing a through hole technology on silicon wafers for cellular phone applications.

5. Sony (Major electronics company in Japan) 10/2

Will roll out the world first 11" OLED TV with 3 mm thick December 1st this year. Retail price will be 200,000 yens for a unit.

6. Rohm (Major component supplier in Japan) 10/2

Has developed a new heat resistant capacitor component series. The new devices keep stable performances over 200 degree C.

7. Kyocera (Major electronics company in Japan) 10/2

Has unveiled a new low cost bumping technology of wafers for the flip chip process.

8. KOA (Major component supplier in Japan) 10/2

Has been developing fine pattern generation processes by ink-jet printing and photolithography with thin films. Now 30 micron L/D is available for LTCC.

9. Sharp (Major electronics company in Japan) 10/3

Has unveiled a new 12.1" LCD panel with 2.88 mm thick.

10. Hitachi Chemical (Major electronics material supplier in Japan) 10/4

Will reorganize all of the PWB and relating material business including subsidiaries in April 2008 to strengthen the business.

11. Asahi Glass (Major glass material supplier in Japan) 10/5

Will invest 30 billion yen for the volume production of the large size glass substrates (2850 x 3050 mm) for the 10G LCD manufacturing lines.

12. Mitsubishi Material (Major material supplier in Japan) 10/5

Will increase the manufacturing capacity of copper mining in Indonesia 9% to 300,000 tons per year in 2009.

Interesting literature about the packaging industry

Articles of DKN Research

1. "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 electronics package, Part XXX, Cellular Phones", Dominique Numakura, Electronics Packaging Technology, September, 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.New "Flexible Circuit Materials", (Japanese only) Dominique Numakura, Denshi Zairyo, April, 2007

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

7. "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. "Using Physics of Failure to identify Root Cause of Printed Board Failure", Craig Hillman, CircuiTree, August, 2007.

2. "The Real Lesson of the Xbox Failures", Mike Buetow, Circuits Assembly, August, 2007.

3. "Printing Miniaturized Components", Clive Ashmore and Jeff Schake, SMT, August, 2007

4. "BGA Escape/Routing Patterns for Fine-Pitch Devices", Syed Wasif Ali, Printed Circuit Design & Manufacturing, July, 2007.

5. "Optimizing the Wire Bond Process", Paul Reid, Advanced Packaging, July, 2007

7. "Under the Hood, How'd They Do That?", presented by EE Times and Techonline, May 2007