Current Status and Development Trend of IC Packaging Substrate Market

The current mainstream development of IC packaging technology is: Flip Chip (FC), Wafer Level (Wafer Level) packaging and copper process-related packaging technology. Among them, flip chip technology has been greatly developed abroad in recent years, and many companies have invested in development one after another. The wafer-level packaging technology is expected to enter the mature stage of development in the next 3 to 5 years due to its advantages such as short, light and thin, high electrical characteristics and low manufacturing costs, and will be first applied to memory IC (Memory IC) packaging devices. on.

  Package Substrate (PKG substrate) represented by BGA, CSP, TAB, and MCM is the carrier of semiconductor chip packaging, and the package substrate is currently developing in the direction of high density. The build-up multi-layer board (BUM) is a new type of PCB product technology that enables high-density packaging substrates.

Current Status of IC Package Substrate Market

   The constant demand for light, thin, short and small electronic information products drives the development of printed circuit boards in the direction of fine-line and micro-hole technology. Coupled with the continuous progress of miniaturized surface mount technology, the demand for high-end IC packaging substrates continues to increase.

   As current electronic installations are mainly aimed at high-density and miniaturization, this has led to the rapid development of the high-density interconnect (HDI) PCB market. In addition, the new packaging forms with development prospects in the future are mainly BGA and CSP, which have high technical levels and high added value. Based on the above two reasons, Japan, the United States, my country's Taiwan region, South Korea, Europe, etc. all attach great importance to the development of such high-density interconnect PCBs. The substrate cost used for packaging accounts for a high proportion of the manufacturing cost of the entire packaged device product. Taking BGA as an example, it accounts for about 40-50%. The substrate for Flip Chip accounts for a higher proportion of the cost, reaching about 70 to 80%.

   Japan has taken the lead in multi-layer laminate technology, and has now reached a mature stage. Therefore, it occupies most of the world's BUM market. In terms of package form, the global PGA, BGA, CSP and MCM-L substrates accounted for 11.6%, 71.9%, 4.91% and 11.57% respectively in 1999. It is estimated that the market demand for PGA substrates will drop to 3.91% in 2004. The market demand for CSP substrates will increase accordingly.

   According to Prismark's survey of the world’s BGA substrate market and the development of mounting technology in 2000, in the next few years, ceramic substrates will be increasingly replaced by organic resin substrates with low cost and miniaturization advantages, flip-chip BGAs (FC-BGA) is one of the leading cutting-edge technologies in the production of miniaturized electronic products in the future.

The global market size of CSP substrates in 2000 was US$280 million, and it will reach US$1.09 billion in 2004, with an average annual growth rate of 31.56%. : The traditional lead frame packaging method has been unable to meet the needs of the development of high-density and miniaturized semiconductor IC devices. The future electronic installation trend will be FC-CSP as the mainstream way.

Packaging market development trend

   Due to the demand for high-density and miniaturization of electronic information products, semiconductor IC packaging devices have evolved from the original QFP packaging method with low pin count (less than 200) to the current larger pin count (more than 300). ) BGA (Ball Grid Array), FC (Flip Chip), Bare Chip (bare chip mounting) and other packaging methods. This trend of increasing the number of pins will continue to develop rapidly. In terms of packaging, the number of I/O pins in the next few years will be 1680, 3280, and 8440. The lead pitch will rapidly develop in a smaller direction. Correspondingly, there will be higher-density wiring on package substrates carrying semiconductor integrated circuits. 

In addition, in recent years, in order to meet the requirements of portable products, IC design is moving in the direction of One Chip technology. In terms of packaging form, it is also moving towards Chip Scale Package/Chip Size Package (CSP).

According to the survey results of the Electronic Trend Publication (ETP) company, the average annual growth rate of the world's IC packaging output was 10.78% from 1999 to 2004. Among them, the average annual growth rate of BGA reached 28.92%, while CSP was 53.04%. It can be seen that the market for BGA (FC-BGA) and CSP package substrates that can achieve multi-pin, high-density, and more miniaturization will continue to grow at a high speed.

Main production base of IC packaging substrates

At present, the top three regions in the world in terms of IC packaging substrate production value are: Japan, Asia (except Japan) and the United States. Japan's share of the world's IC packaging substrate market is close to 80%, Asia is about 12%, and the United States is about 8%. The proportion of Europe and the rest of the world is quite small

Generally, a package substrate made of a multilayer laminate method that can achieve high density is a high-end IC package substrate. High-density PCB is a PCB with high reliability of fine wires and fine vias. Its general wire width is 75um, and the via hole diameter is below 150um. The build-up method multilayer board is the most typical high-density PCB. This high-density PCB is especially in line with the development trend of IC packaging substrates.

Most of the world's major manufacturers of multi-layer laminates are from Japan. However, in the past two or three years, Taiwan, South Korea and other regions of China have seen the momentum of continuous expansion of the production of laminated multi-layer boards. This development is mainly manifested in the investment in high-end equipment such as laser drilling machines to meet the needs of high-density PCB products such as IC packaging substrates. At present, many PCB manufacturers in Japan have several or dozens of laser drilling machines. my country's Taiwan area currently has more than a dozen laser drilling machines (statistics at the end of 2000), and they are still increasing, and initially have the competitive strength to compete for the IC packaging substrate market in the world.

In the United States, only Honeywell ACI currently has the strength to manufacture multi-layer laminates with laser drilling technology. Other companies, such as IBM, Hadcu and Multek, do not have this technology. In the future, the United States will work towards the research and development of related equipment suitable for high-end IC packaging substrate technology.

Currently in Europe, there are three companies that are capable of producing multilayer laminates with laser drilling technology: AT&S (Austria), Aspocomp (Finland), and PPE. It is estimated that the three manufacturers will develop multi-layer laminates with a growth rate of more than 50%.

 At present, the main suppliers of PBGA substrates and CSP substrates are JCI (Japan), Ibiden (Japan), Samsung (South Korea), LG (South Korea) and PPT. The development trend worthy of attention is the rapid increase in market share in recent years. Therefore, in the next few years of development since 2001, the pattern of the world PBGA substrate market will be greatly changed. In particular, driven by China and the Chinese government’s emphasis on semiconductors and policy support, the development of packaging substrates in China will also rise rapidly. For example, HOREXS, a memory IC substrate manufacturer that has emerged in China, is also accelerating its process improvement in the past two years. Accelerating the layout and increasing production capacity is a force that cannot be ignored.

 In terms of TBGA substrates, Japanese manufacturers still dominate. Major suppliers in Japan include: Shinko, Hitachi Cable, Mitsui and Sumitomo. In addition, the Compass and 3M companies in Hong Kong, my country, have the tendency to invest in this market.