Dr. Hayao Nakahara of N.T.I. shared his view on the overall PCB status in 2017 during the opening forum of CPCA Show 2018. In 2017, the PCB growth was mainly driven by the application of smart phones and automobile electronics. The worldwide PCB output value reached US$62.621 billion with an annual growth rate of 8.1%, and this year’s growth model is expected to be the same. On the other hand, soft PCBs are mainly used in mobile devices, especially in Apple’s smart phones, PCs and smart wearable devices. The PCB growth rate in Southeast Asia, in particularly Thailand and Vietnam, was very impressive last year with an average growth rate exceeding double digits; while that of US’s PCB factories grew by 4.5% due to increasing orders and shipments of rigid-flex PCBs. All these are directly contributed to Apple. For the first time, the revenue of Taiwanese firm Zing Ding Tech. rose to world’s top position in 2017 to value at US$3.575 billion, with an annual growth rate of up to 32%.
 

        Looking forward to the year 2018, high-level mSAP (modified-semi-additive process) will be commonly adopted by PCB factories in response to iPhone 8 and iPhone X demand. The mSAP production program is mainly aimed at improving the predicament of subtractive production method and the existing problems of additive fine line production. The manufacturing process of mSAP is arduous as the machine platform of this type of carrier-based HDI needs to meet the high linewidth resolution requirement of L/S = 10/15μm, and the cost of mSAP is high. Meanwhile, as demand increases and more and more competitors are investing in this industry, high-end PCB processes such as mSAP will become the mainstream of smart phones in the next few years. Following the maturity of the manufacturing process and increasing yield, the market share of such process will gradually be expanded. This mSAP technology will naturally become a key project for the global PCB plants to expand investment this year. (Source: TPCA)