It has been said that Huawei’s flagship new model Mate 30 will introduce SLP technology by the end of the year, which is like declaring that SLP will become the mainstream motherboard technology for consumer electronics in the future. According to relevant upstream supply chains, Huawei has planned to introduce SLP technology in the new flagship model Mate 30, which will be launched at the end of this year, and it should become the third most popular brand name to adopt SLP for its cellphone motherboards, behind only Apple and Samsung.

 

          In the past two years, Huawei has achieved rather favorable results in mobile phone applications, and its status in the mobile phone market is currently trailing very closely after Samsung, the global leader. Although the mobile phone market is now experiencing a growth bottleneck, according to the PCB supply chain, various brands are showing prominent trends of upgrading their motherboards this year. In addition to such a major global brand as Huawei and others that will introduce SLP in its flagship model, other second-line brands will also upgrade from the traditional high-density connection board (HDI) to Anylayer-class HDI products. The primary incentive for upgrading the motherboard is primarily the continuous growth of demand for mobile phone functions.

 

           The introduction of SLP technology by Huawei is absolutely indicative as a benchmark as doing so practically announces that SLP will become the mainstream motherboard technology for consumer electronics in the future. Huawei may also follow the Apple model as it first starts to introduce mobile phones and then gradually expands to smart watches, tablets, and other products. As viewed, the market penetration rate of SLP can then be expected to accelerate.

 

          Taiwan's major manufacturers of SLP currently include Zhen Ding, Unimicron, and Compeq, all of which are members to Huawei's mobile-phone supply chain. Although the three manufacturers have unanimously stated that they will not comment on any specific products, these three manufacturers are expected to become the primary suppliers of SLP to the new model of Huawei. In particular Zheng Ding has SLP technology that is currently the best in the world and shares a close strategic relationship with Huawei regarding 5G communication technology. Therefore, Zhen Ding is likely to obtain a larger proportion of the orders, helping it to maintain its leading position in the SLP market.

 

          The PCB industry believes that relying on shipments to drive profitable performance is impossible when the market prospect is turning uncertain, so production technology and management capabilities will become vital regarding whether each PCB of the factories can survive the headwind and seize the next wave of new opportunities. Furthermore, advancing the layout of new technologies will thus become very important, while SLP is considered a good example. Although SLP from various manufacturers has had a rather low yield during the learning period, as production experience accumulates and market penetration gradually increases, the massive investments into new technologies at the initial stage should now begin to reap the harvest during the next few years. (News source: Digitimes)