IC Substrate - Future focus on the development of IC packaging substrate

Future focus on the development of IC packaging substrate

This article introduces the business situation of IC packaging substrate, the market demand of application field, the semiconductor packaging industry project cooperated with big fund, the semiconductor test board business and so on.

IC Packaging

IC packaging substrate services

In 2012, the company invested in the construction of IC packaging substrate production line, starting from a high point, according to the international first-class customer standards design and construction of plant, production line, the production capacity is designed to reach 10,000 square meters/month. In 2018, we passed the Certification of Samsung, and started the second phase of production expansion, with an additional investment of 10,000 square meters/month, and the overall production capacity expanded to 20,000 square meters/month. At present, the overall capacity utilization rate is at a high level, the yield rate has been increased to 95%, and the market demand is relatively strong. IC packaging substrate industry entry threshold is high, there are technical, capital and customer barriers, manufacturing process is difficult, certification time is long, the company's current capacity is limited, scale effect has not been shown. The main customers are chip design companies and sealing test factories, most of them are mainland customers, and some of them are South Korea and Taiwan. The future of IC packaging substrate is the strategic direction of the company's key development, but also the key investment field.

Market demand in the application domain

In PCB industry, from the perspective of downstream classification, computer, communication and consumer electronics account for about 2/3 of PCB industry demand, and industrial control, medical, military and automobile industries account for 1/3. In 2020, the overall performance of PCB industry is general, showing a trend of high before and low after, especially affected by the communication industry. Q3 is the weakest quarter of the industry demand performance. The demand of the medical industry benefited from the epidemic and performed well, with a decline in the second half of the year. The computer industry also saw good growth, benefiting from online office work. The automobile and military industry improved steadily. Consumer electronics were flat.

Application field

In 2021, the overall demand of the industry is expected to pick up, on the one hand, because of the easing of the epidemic and the recovery of the global economy, on the other hand, the trend of the industrial chain transferring to China will continue, and the resumption of work and production in China will lead the world, the technology will be further improved, and the cost advantage will still exist. In the future, the performance of the industry will still be differentiated, the growth rate of the domestic industry will be better than that of the overseas market, the trend of technology upgrading will continue, the demand for high-end products will continue to be hot, and the middle and low-end market will face greater pressure. Semiconductor industry is in a high boom cycle, domestic supply and demand are flourishing pattern, from finished products to raw materials are facing supply shortage, product price rise trend. According to the view of the industry and consulting institutions, ABF board, BT board and HDI board will be in short supply, and the speed of supply expansion is far behind the speed of demand growth. The more high-end products, the more serious the shortage of supply, the larger the investment scale required for capacity expansion, and the longer the production capacity release cycle.

In terms of the supply side, IC substrate board industry is originally a minority game. Before 2019, due to the low prosperity of the pen and mobile phone industries, the domestic demand did not really rise, and the main players in the industry were not in good business conditions and did not implement production expansion, resulting in limited supply of the industry. The current situation is that the first-line manufacturers represented by XX. Electronics and Jingsuo are increasing their efforts to expand the capacity of ABF Substrate (for CPU GPU chip), build or transform some BT Substrate production lines, and strive to further bind to overseas big customers; Domestic manufacturers represented by PCB Factory circuit are increasing their efforts to expand the capacity of BT Substrate, while the capacity of overseas BT Substrate has not increased, and there is a certain spillover effect. Starting from December 2020, both ABF and BT loaders will see price increases of varying degrees.

Semiconductor packaging (IC Packaging) industry projects cooperated with large funds

The total investment of the project is 3 billion yuan, of which the first phase investment is 1.6 billion yuan, and the monthly production capacity is 30,000 square meters OF IC packaging substrate and 15,000 square meters of Substrate board. The company holds 41%, Guangzhou Science City Group holds 25%, Big fund holds 24%, and the partnership (management team) holds 10%. Plant construction is expected to be completed in the middle of 2021, and plant decoration and equipment installation and debugging will be completed in the second half of the year.

Semiconductor test board business

Pointed out that the industry prospects are good, belonging to high-end customization of high value-added business, domestic manufacturers involved in less. The company entered the field through the acquisition of Harbor Corporation in the United States, and has a dominant position in the global semiconductor test board(IC Test Board) overall solution field. Its main customers are first-class semiconductor companies. To provide customers with a fully customized service, higher value added, the corresponding product price and gross margin are higher. The products are used in various processes from wafer testing to pre - and post-package testing. Types include interface board, probe card and aging board. The company's current semiconductor test board products are mainly interface board and probe card.