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EPTE Newsletter from Japan--KPCA Show 2008, Part II

The KPCA Show is a venue for companies to exhibit products and technologies relating to the PWB industry, electronics manufacturing and PCB design. I was puzzled by the lack of substance from the Korean companies at the show.

Since Korea holds a leading position in the global consumer electronics market, I had assumed their technologies were second to none, and their capacities could satisfy huge demands from the high-density multilayer rigid boards and flexible circuits segments. Of the more than one hundred PWB manufacturers in Korea, fifteen or twenty are geared up for very high manufacturing capabilities with large volume. They supply an assortment of complicated printed circuits for popular consumer electronic products, including cellular phones and flat panel TVs.

Unfortunately, no new technologies from the high-end Korean PWB industry were featured at the KPCA Show. Two industry giants in Korea, Samsung Electro-Mechanics and LG Electronics, had relatively large booths on the floor and both displays were very similar. Both have high-density multilayer board and rigid/flex applied cellular phones. Both also displayed IC packaging substrates for package on package (PoP). Both companies are known for their embedded resistor circuits made by the screen-printing process--a technology presented several years ago at IPC EXPO in the U.S. Unfortunately, all the displays were very simple, the presentations were sub-par and visitors received little information to help them understand the features and benefits of the technologies.

Doosan, the largest laminate supplier in the Korean PWB industry, had a large booth at the show. However, I could not find any special innovative materials for high-end circuit boards. The company did feature a new technology--optical circuit board. I have heard that several major PWB companies have been developing optical circuit boards as the new wiring and packaging technology for next generation high-speed applications. The display at Doosan's booth was the first chance for me to see the actual product.

The basic concept of the technology is an interconnection by a flexible optical waveguide between two circuit boards through O/E and E/O conversion devices mounted on the boards. I am not sure whether or not this idea represents the technology trends in the Korean industry. This concept has already been put to practical use in the telecommunications and test equipment markets. I asked the engineer in the booth what the major benefit of the technology was, and what its practical application was, and, unfortunately, she did not give me detailed information. She said that the technology was still in the basic R&D stage, and there was no practical idea to apply.

A few laminate suppliers for flexible circuits still exist. I found three adhesive-less laminate manufacturers--they were Korean, Japanese and Chinese companies. All were relatively new manufacturers in the global market. A serious laminate shortage issue existed in the global flexible circuit industry few years ago, but many new suppliers have entered the market and major suppliers have increased manufacturing capacity significantly in the last few years. Now, the industry is so saturated that it has become a buyers' market. These new companies that sprung up three years ago could find the business climate very difficult.

I mentioned earlier my puzzlement at the show. The actual technologies employed within the industry and the technologies featured at the KPCA Show were not consistent--a lot was missing. I asked several Korean industry experts at the show to comment on this and most had the same explanation. They say the electronics industry in Korea is unique compared with other countries. Most companies are organized into two groups--Samsung and LG. The vendors in each group have formed very tight bonds with their customers, and they shy away from public promotions. Secondly, competition between the groups is intense, and they are afraid to leak any significant information that could benefit their competitor, especially information about leading edge technologies. This is the main reason for the major companies not showing off or providing details about leading edge technologies during the show.

I can understand these companies keeping their cards close to their vests. Their line of sight is fixed on the domestic customers. This limited vision may not be beneficial to the Korean companies since future targets must be aimed at global markets. I remember a similar situation 30 years ago in Japan. Japanese circuit board manufacturers are still not very good at exporting business.

Dominique K. Numakura

DKN Research, http://www.dknresearch.com/.

Headlines of the Week

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

1. MEC (Supplier of specialty chemicals for PWB in Japan) 7/28Has developed a new surface treatment reagent of copper foil for the direct laser drilling process. The treatment will reduce the power of lasers.

2. Dai-Nippon Printing (Major printing company in Japan) 7/28Will invest 40 billion yen to build a new manufacturing plant for LCD color filters in the same lot of Panasonic's LCD plant.

3. Ishii Hyoki (Equipment supplier in Japan) 4/28Has started the operation of two new plants for wafers of solar cells and polarization coating machines for the LCD manufacturing process.

4. Hitachi Chemical (Major electronics material supplier in Japan) 4/28Will invest 3 billion yen to build a new manufacturing plant of shielding layers of multilayer boards in Singapore.

5. Shinwa Frontech (Middle class PWB manufacturer in Japan) 4/30Will begin operation of the new PWB manufacturing plant in Sagamihara in May with a monthly capacity of 50 thousand square meters.

6. Dai Nippon Printing (Major PWB manufacturer in Japan) 4/30Will form a joint venture with Unimicron in Taiwan for the manufacturing of HDI circuit board using B2it technology.

7. Kyoei Sangyo (Major PWB manufacturer in Japan) 4/30Will expand the EMS business in China--Kyoei will purchase more PWBs and components from Taiwanese and Chinese vendors.

8. Ube Industries (Major chemical company in Japan) 4/30Will invest 8 billion yen to build a tenth and eleventh manufacturing line of Upilex, polyimide films flexible circuits. The total capacity will increase 35%.

9. Densan Shimpoh (Industry media in Japan) 4/28Has reported the rankings of flexible circuit manufacturers in Japan: #1, Mektron and #2 is Fujikura.

10. Omron (Major component supplier in Japan) 4/30Will commercialize the thinnest connector with back/lock mechanism for 0.3 mm pitch flexible circuits of mobile equipment with a height of 0.6 mm.

11. CMO (Major display manufacturer in Taiwan) 5/1Will invest 4 to 5 billion U.S. dollars in Vietnam to build 10G and 11G manufacturing lines of LCD modules in the next five years.

12. Taiyo Ink (Resist ink material supplier in Japan) 5/2Will build a new manufacturing plant of general resist ink in China. The capacity will be 6,000 tons per year by 2014.

13. Toray (Major chemical company in Japan) 5/5Will begin the manufacturing of an adhesive-less flexible laminate for flexible circuits in Korea with a capacity of 700,000 sq. meters per year.

14. STEMCO (Major tape circuit manufacturer in Korea) 5/5Has increased the manufacturing capacity of chip on film (COF) substrates 55% to 59 million units per month.

15. LG Electronics (Major electronics company in Korea) 5/8Will roll out new cellular phones with full touch screen displays in June.

16. Mmitsubishi Gas Chemical (Major PWB material supplier in Japan) 5/9Has increased the manufacturing capacity of copper foil laminates and prepreg sheets 40% to one million sq. meters per month in Fukushima Plant.

17. LG Display (Major display manufacturer in Korea) 5/8Has developed a new roll-to-roll manufacturing process of thin film transistors (TFT) for flexible displays.

18. NSG (Major glass substrate supplier in Japan) 5/12Will withdraw from the business of glass substrates for TFT LCD devices.

19. SMM (Tape circuit manufacturer in Japan) 5/12Will build a new fine COF manufacturing line in Taiwan with a capacity of 10 million units per month introducing semi-additive technology.

20. Samsung Electronics (Major electronics company in Korea) 5/15Considers withdrawing from laptop computer business. Current market share is only 1.7%.

21. Mitsubishi Plastic (Major plastic supplier in Japan) 5/14Will build a new manufacturing plant for optical polyester films in Shiga Prefecture to meet the demand of flat panel displays.

22. Casio Micronics (IC packaging company in Japan) 5/16Will be a 100% subsidiary of Casio delisting from the stock exchange market after the sale of the COF business to Hitachi Cable.

Interesting Literature Concerning the Packaging Industry

Articles from DKN Research

1. "Screen Printing for High-Density Flexible Electronics," Robert Turunen, Masafumi Nakayama and Dominique Numakura, Printed Circuit FAB, October, 2007, http://pcdandm.com/cms/content/view/3846/95/.

2. "Total Process Solution for the High-Density Multi-layer Flexible Printable Electronic Circuits," (Japanese only) Dominique Numakura, Denshi Zairyo, October, 2007.

3.New "Roll to Roll Production of Flexible Circuits, Possibilities and Issues," Dominique Numakura, Joho Kiko, Tokyo, March 2008 (Japanese only).

4. "Coombs' Printed Circuits Handbook, 6th Edition, Part 15-Flexible Circuits," Dominique Numakura, McGraw Hill, New York, September, 2007.

5. New "Screen Printing Process for High Density Flexible Electronics," Robert Turunen, Dominique Numakura, Masafumi Nakayama and Hisayuki Kawasaki, IPC Printed Circuit Expo/APEX and the Designers Summit, April 2008.

6. New "Global Flexible Circuit Industry, Market Trends and Technology Trends by Applications," Dominique Numakura, International Symposium of KPCA Show, April, 2008. (English power point file is available.)

From the Major Industry Magazines

1. "Using Statistical Tools in Electronics Manufacturing," Rob Emery and Craig Hamilton, CircuiTree, May 2008.

2. "Evaluating Manufacturability and Operational Costs for New Conformal Coating Processes," Jason Keeping, Circuits Assembly, May 2008.

3. "Flexible Circuits Market: Surging Ahead," Ashwin T. Ananthakrishnan, SMT, March, 2008.

4. "Don't Let Your Signals, STUB THEIR TOES," Eric Bogatin, Printed Circuit Design & FAB, May, 2008.

5. "DRIE for MEMS Devices," Michel Puech, Jean-Marc Thevenoud, et al, Advanced Packaging, April, 2008.

7. "Process requirements for high density SMD placement," Sjef van Gastel, Global SMT & Packaging, March 2008.

8. "Microflex Circuit Applications for Medical Devices," Luke Volpe, MD & DI Magazine, January 2008.