Dominique Numakura’s Newsletter from Japan

InterNepcon Japan 2004 (Part 2):The assembling of the circuit boards occupied the largest space of the exhibition. There were a lot of mounting machines, soldering materials & equipment and relating products. There were two major topics during the exhibition. They are the 0402 SMT components and lead-free soldering. Many equipment manufacturers and material manufacturers displayed their new products for the 0402 SMT standard. Only 50 micron (2mil) spaces between the components are allowed for the 0402 SMT components. (0.4 mm long and 0.2 mm wide, 16 mil long and 8 mil wide) Solder paste, screen, printer, mounting machine, reflow furnace and the other relating products were displayed for the 0402 technology. Most of the companies told that the volume production with 0402 components would start in this year.Lead-free soldering is the next major topic in the exhibition. People were not very optimistic about the lead-free soldering because of the experience of volume production in the actual assembling process. A big problem was serious damage on the soldering equipment after two or three years of operations. The equipment manufacturers were appealing their new reliable products for lead-free soldering. The reliability of the lead-free soldering is another issue. No lead-free soldering system can guarantee the exact insulation resistance after a long aging with high humidity and high temperature. The manufacturers of soldering materials were introducing new alloys during the show. Unfortunately, I could not find a clear direction for the lead-free soldering. Dominique NumakuraHeadline NewsHirose Electric (Major connector manufacturer) Will acquire the organic EL display business from Taiho Industry to enter the display business. Mitsui Chemical (Major chemical company) Will start the manufacturing of color filter for PDP (Plasma Display Panels) in North America and in China in this year. Mitsui will produce 300 thousand panels in each facility.Seiko Epson (Major electronics company) Will expand the manufacturing capacity of LTPS-LCD (Low Temperature Poly-Silicon LCD) for cellular phone applications.Sekisui Chemical (Major material manufacturer) Unveiled the new non-conductive film as the insulation material of the flip chip technology with lead-free soldering.Kuraray (Major chemical company) Announced the new expansion plan of polarization film for LCD devices. The company will invest 3 billion Yen for the new 15 million square meters capacity per year.Pioneer (Major electronics company) Had an agreement to acquire the plasma display panel business from NEC. NEC made 50 billion Yen revenue with PDP products in the 2003 fiscal year.Mitsubishi Chemical (Major chemical company) Will commercialize the resist materials for the color filters of LCD devices.Ube Industry (Polyimide film manufacturer) Will increase the manufacturing capacity of adhesiveless flexible laminates "Upicel" 50% to cover the booming demands.NEC Electronics (Semiconductor manufacturer) Decided to sell the assembling and test facility to Taiwanese manufacturer ASE.NEC (Major electronics manufacturer) Unveiled the world’s smallest card type cellular phone using ultra thin 6 layer boards (0.4mm thick) and fine pitch CSP. 85 x 54 x 8.6 mm, 70 grams. Fuji Film (Photo film and camera manufacturer) Will expand the manufacturing capacity of "Wide View Film" of LCD to 24 million square meters per year for the increasing demands of monitor and flat panel TV. Daido Special Steel (Steel material manufacturer) Commercialized a new halogen-free material "DPR-HN" as the radio absorber of the electronics productsTohoku Pioneer (Display device manufacturer) Started the supply of the passive type organic EL display for the 3rd generation cellular phone "FORMA" of Docomo made by Fujitsu. Japan Pure Chemical (Chemical supplier for the plating process) Have been shifting the business of plating chemical from domestic to export to Asia. More than half of lead-free solder will be exported in the near future. Hitachi Cable (Major TAB manufacturer) Will increase the production of micro BGA ten times larger to 10 million units per month by the second quarter of 2005 for consumer digital products.Mitsumi Electric (Major component manufacturer) Unveiled the ultra-small size IC chips by WLCSP technology.1.5 x 1.0 x 0.48 mmYAMAHA Fine Tech (Equipment manufacturer) Introduced a screen printer and mounting machine for the 0402 SMT components.Dai Nippon Printing (Major printing company) Will provide 10 million dollar fund to I-Fire for the manufacturing facility of the large size TDEL devices. 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.