Dominique Numakura`s Newsletter from Japan

JPCA Show 2003 (Part 3) "New Materials"Because many material companies canceled their booths and other material companies did not send people to the show, I could not see many innovative new materials during the exhibition. I had to interview the visitors of the companies during and after the show instead. But there were still several interesting topics. All of the major laminate suppliers, solder mask ink suppliers and some of flex laminate suppliers are ready to supply halogen free materials. Also they said the materials had enough heat resistance for the high temperature lead-free soldering. Material companies cannot make a business in Japan if they do not have ecologically friendly products.Again, the adhesive-less laminate shortage of the flex circuits is the major topic during the exhibition. Major suppliers such as Nippon Steel Chemical were explaining their expansion plans instead of excuses. Several new suppliers debuted the new materials during the show. Thin Flex, Taiwan displayed a new cast type adhesive-less laminates for both single sided and double sided. Matsushita Electric Works, the giant of rigid laminates introduced a sputtering/plating type laminate with Upilex. The interesting news of Matsushita is that the company will supply not only laminates, but also the etched flex laminate as the inner layers of multi-layer rigid/flex. It could be a similar concept as pre-multi laminate. But I am not sure whether it is practical or not.ACF and ACP (Anisotropic conductive film or paste) are not the materials to make a printed circuit, but it is important for COF (Chip on Flex or Film) and wiring of the LCD devices. Major suppliers such as Sony Chemical and Sumitomo 3M were appealing for 30 micron pitch interconnect capabilities for the FPD devices and their driver IC chips. Dominique NumakuraHeadline NewsMitsubishi Electric Developed a new glass/epoxy based HDI material as the substrate for the SIP and CSP. 25 micron L/S, 175 micron via pitch, 55 micron bonding pad pitch. Nippon Dempa (Device manufacturer) Will expand the SAW device business to 10 billion Yen next year in the cellular phone and automobile markets. Sumitomo Metal Mining (Package material manufacturer) Will increase the manufacturing capacity of Pd plated lead frame products in Thailand and Malaysia as the alternative material for the lead-free soldering.Mitsui Chemical (Major chemical company) Re-organized the electronics business. Generated Electronics Material Division and Display & Information Division. Will terminate the Memory disc business. Mitsui Metal Smelting (Major copper foil supplier) Will commercialize an ultra-thin copper foil with a carrier sheet for the 30 micron pitch high density circuits. The foil has a 3 to 5 micron thickness with a high heat resistance.Hitachi Chemical (Major PWB material manufacturer) Developed a new organic SOG insulation material for the next generation 65 nano-meter patterns.Sony Chemical (Major flexible circuit manufacturer) Developed a new type of multi-layer rigid/flex with halogen-free adhesives. The circuits have a high heat resistance for lead-free soldering.SamSung SDI (Display device manufacturer in Korea) Will start the volume production of the highest quality 42" size PDP in China in June. 50" and 63" size products will be produced by the end of the year.Toyobo (Organic material supplier) Will invest 5 billion yen for the PET film manufacturing plant in Aichi to cover the growing demand for the display devices.Asahi Glass (Major glass material manufacturer) Will invest 1800 billion Yen to increase the manufacturing capacity of the large size glass substrates for the TFT-LCD applications.Matsushita Display (Major display device manufacturer) Is planning the next generation PDP plant by the year of 2006 because the new plant under construction will be full in 2005.Toray-Du Pont (Major polyimide film manufacturer) Will increase the manufacturing capacity of Kapton film in the Tokai Plant 60% to 1770 ton per year to cover the strong demands by the booming flexible circuits in Asia. CMK (Major PWB manufacturer) Has forecasted a 111 billion Yen revenue and 700 million Yen income for the fiscal year of 2003. Will reduce the investment to 4.8 million yen this year. NEC Developed a new ultra-thin substrate "MLTS (Multi-Layer Thin Substrate)" with its own packaging technology for the next generation SiP. The total thickness will be one third compared to the other technology, Ball pitch could be 0.3 mm. All original news items were written in Japanese. Volunteers are choosing the topics and translating to English for free delivery. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the news. Quick news is the first priority of the headlines, therefore, we can not eliminate all of the mistakes in the translations.