The 14^th KPCA & ECWC took place in Soul, South Korea at KINTEX on April 25^th. The event kicked off with an introduction of Mr. Jung Bong Hung, the new President of KPCA, who was elected this past March 24^th and assumed office the same day with an expected incumbency of 4 years, until 2020. With rich experience of three decades in PCB production, Mr. Hung now serves as the CEO of BHFlex Vina Co., Ltd (BHFlex’s overseas investment company). We expect him to lead KPCA to a brilliant journey to its 15^th anniversary. In his opening remark, Mr. Hung added that the foundation of PCB industry in Korea can be traced back to 1964, which is over half a century old. Having experienced setbacks between 2013 and 2016 leading to recession, the industry is expected to pick up in 2017 owing to the new distribution of FPCB and OLED panels, from which they expect to reap a production value of 9.5 trillion Korean won, a 6-per-cent-rise compared to 2016.   
The KPCA Show features over 280 companies worldwide from over 10 countries. There will be various exhibition zones for new releases, international brand names, excellent entries among PCB industry, ECWC14 theses and posters. The technology panel discuss the prospects and future trends, featuring Alpha Global, Atotech Korea, Korea Electronics Technology Institute, Dr.-Ing. Max Schlötter GmbH & Co. KG and Orbotech Korea.

Held in conjunction, ECWC 14 launched with a keynote speech by Yong Chul Park from Amkor Technology Korea, who focus primarily on mobility, IoT, memory, HPC (High performance computing) Automotive, and comprehensive market analysis. Park says that “smart wear” in the future will only be lighter, thinner and softer, e.g. smart phones with a thickness of only 4.75mm (evolving from 12.3mm) and Low CTE (1PPM) that allows a mobile phone to bend. The key to success of IoT lies in the development of 5G and SiP. Smart automobiles will have no tolerance for errors in terms of product cycle, temperature and humidity. The challenge facing HPC is heat treatment. As for memory, it comes to very thin panels and low cost. Mr. Walter Custer followed the session by probing the current technology trends on the basis of aggregate analysis of data, e.g. SEMI equipment procurement rising by 20 per cent within one year from 2016 to 2017, increase of international electronic components by 3.7% for Q1, 2017, anticipated target of $250 billion of 5G by 2025, planned introduction of auto smart cars in 2020, etc. Walter said the current market relies on auto components industry, meaning that the technology industry can fairly expect some remarkable prospects and potentiality.

Eight other partner associations of World Electronics Circuit Council (WECC) have been also invited to participate in the dinner banquet of WECC, KPCA grand opening, ECWC’s opening, and KPCA’s welcome dinner. These sessions will include multilateral perspectives shared by distinguished guests worldwide such as Rex Rozario, WECC Secretary General; Jing Zhang, CPCA Secretary General; Alun Morgan, EIPC President; Robert Ho, Senior Director of HKPCA; David Bergman, Vice President of IPC; Ramesh Sharma, Vice President of IPCA; Hiroki Yamashi, Vice President of JPCA; Michael Chang (Dupont Taiwan), Chairman of TPCA International Committee; Rajoo Geol, Secretary General of ELCINA(Electronic Industrial Association of India).

(News source: TPCA)