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EPTE Newsletter from Japan--JPCA Show 2008, Part I
The Japan Electronics Packaging and Circuit Association recently held the world largest exhibition of the printed circuit industry, the JPCA Show 2008 at Tokyo Big Sight in Japan, June 11, 2008. The show lasted three days and more than 600 companies and organizations were represented . This year's show grabbed honors as the largest exhibition ever for the printed circuit industry, and the JPCA Show is arguably the greatest exhibition in terms of size and technology level. The floors of the Eastern building of the convention center were fully occupied by booths and one manager from the JPCA office told me they were at full capacity--no space was available for additional exhibitors. Over the next few years, JPCA must pursue different avenues to accommodate its growing popularity.
A slowdown in the market did not curb attendance at the show. During the first two days, more than fifty thousand guests registered; almost the same number as last year. I speculate more than one hundred thousand people passed through the exhibition over three days. More foreign visitors were in attendance compared with previous years, and I recognized visitors from Korea, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Hong Kong, India, Israel, the U.S., Canada, UK, France, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. In past years, not many visitors from the U.S. and Europe attended, but this year was an exception. A few major circuit board manufacturers in Korea and Taiwan sent more than 10 people to the exhibition.
European and American visitors told me their purpose for attending the exhibition was to research new technological trends for cutting edge circuit boards. These visitors were also trying to secure vendors to fill their materials and manufacturing equipment distribution pipeline. This tells me that European and American manufacturers are considering an expansion into high-end segments.
Asian visitors had similar agendas; however, their primary goal was to study and acquire knowledge for leading edge technologies. One Korean engineer told me his company was considering developing the same technologies as some Japanese manufacturers. In the short run, they will be great customers; however, in the long run, they will become competitors for Japanese manufacturers.
Many foreign companies had display booths at the show this year. American and European (including Israel) representatives promoted high-end technologies; their primary targets were Japanese customers and secondary targets were Korean and Taiwanese customers. Chinese and Taiwanese companies hoped to enter the market with low cost circuit boards and materials used in low-end applications; their game plan was to attract the bottom feeders in Japan. Conversely, Korean companies paraded their high-end products for circuit boards, materials and equipment, claiming technological levels equivalent to their peers. Unfortunately, due to high expenses, it may be too cost prohibitive for Korean manufacturers to attract and retain customers in Japan or other countries. One of my Korean associates told me that Korean manufacturers consider their primary customers to be within the Korean market and, if all is well, they may consider throwing their hat into the exporting business.
The Japanese circuit board industry has posted small growths over the last several years and is no longer the front-runner in the global circuit board industry relative to production volume. I estimate that the total production volume from Taiwanese circuit board companies is much larger. China can now claim to be the volume leader for printed circuit board production; however, Japanese manufacturers are second to none where technological levels are measured. Currently, more than 10 Japanese circuit board manufacturers are developing the next generation high-density circuit boards and flexible circuits. The only thing certain in the global electronics industry is the that status quo will never be maintained.
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. AUO (Major display device manufacturer in Taiwan) 6/5The manufacturer has developed the world first convex surface display with TFT-LCD. The radius of the convex is approximately 100 mm.
2. SII Nano Technology (Equipment manufacturer in Japan) 6/6The company has unveiled a new X-ray thickness measuring system for the plating of large-size printed circuit boards.
3. TAMURA (Soldering material supplier in Japan) 6/4The supplier has developed a new halogen-free and lead-free solder paste, "LFSOLDER TLF-204-NH," for use with high temperature profiles.
4. Hitachi Plant (Major equipment company in Japan) 6/9The company has developed a new high-speed solder paste screen-printing machine for middle-size (50 x 50 mm to 330 x 250 mm) with a cycle time of six seconds per stroke.
5. Hitachi Chemical (Major circuit material supplier in Japan) 6/9The supplier has rolled out a series of new heat resistant copper clad laminates for high frequency circuit boards.
6. Asahi Kasei Electronics (Major electronics material supplier in Japan) 6/9The company has completed the expansion construction of its dry film manufacturing plant in China. The total capacity of the group is now 370 million square meters per year.
7. Matsushita Electric Works (Major circuit material supplier in Japan) 6/9The supplier has rolled out a series of new heat resistant copper clad laminates, "HIPER Series R-1755V," for automobile circuit boards.
8. YAMAHA (Equipment manufacturer in Japan) 6/9The manufacturer has released a new double-side, contact-type open/short tester, "MP160," for use with semiconductor package substrates.
9. JUKI (Mounting machine manufacturer in Japan) 6/10The company has rolled out a new high-cost, performance chip mounting machine, "KE-1070 M/L," with 13,500 cph for 0603 chips by four nozzles.
10. Oki Cable (Second tier cable manufacturer in Japan) 6/11The manufacturer has developed a new type of flexible circuit with a low dielectric constant (2.5) and tangent delta (0.001) for 3-D wiring.
11. Mitsui Metal Mining (Major copper foil supplier in Japan) 6/11The supplier has developed the world's thinnest dielectric layer (8 micron thick) for the embedded capacitance of multi-layer boards.
12. Dai Nippon Screen (Equipment manufacturer in Japan) 6/10The manufacturer has commercialized a new AOI machine, "PI-9000," with the fastest processing speed for HDI semiconductor substrates.
13. Sangyo Times (Industry media in Japan) 6/11The organization has released a ranking for Japanese circuit board manufacturers: first: Ibiden; second: NOK; third: NTK; and fourth: CMK.
14. MCK (Equipment manufacturer in Japan) 6/11The company has developed a new vacuum-type RTR laminator for the overlay lamination process of flexible circuits.
15. Mitsui High Tech (Packaging material supplier in Japan) 6/11The supplier has developed a new lead frame series hybrid manufacturing technology (HMT) package for automobile applications.
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," (Japanese only) Dominique Numakura, Joho Kiko, Tokyo, March 2008.
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 PowerPoint file is available).
From the Major Industry Magazines
1. "Vacuum Etching Technology, Combined Processes and Interesting Development," Volker Feyeravbend, CircuiTree, June 2008.
2. "Evaluating Manufacturability and Operational Costs for New Conformal Coating Processes," Jason Keeping, Circuits Assembly, May 2008.
3. "Alternative Replace Older Cleaners," Mike Jones and Tom Tattersall, SMT, May, 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. "Nanotechnology and mathematical methods for high-performance thrmal interface materials," Sara N. Paisner, Global SMT & Packaging, May 2008.
8. "Microflex Circuit Applications for Medical Devices," Luke Volpe, MD & DI Magazine, January 2008.
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