Dominique K. Numakura's Newsletter from Japan

JPCA Show 2008 (Part 1)

Japan Electronics Packaging and Circuit Association held the world largest exhibition of the printed circuit industry, JPCA Show 2008 at Tokyo Big Sight in Japan on June 11th. The show lasted for three days, and more than 600 companies and organizations were represented at the show. This year's show grabbed the honors as the largest exhibition ever for the printed circuit industry, and the JPCA Show is arguably the greatest exhibition in terms of size and technology level. The floors of the Eastern building of the convention center were fully occupied by the booths, and one manager from the JPCA office told me they were at full capacity, and no space was available for additional exhibitors. Over the next few years, JPCA must pursue different avenues to accommodate its growing popularity.

A slowdown in the market did not curb the attendance at the show. During the first two days, more than fifty thousand guests registered; almost the same as last year. I speculate more than one hundred thousand people passed through the exhibition over the three days. There were more foreign visitors compared with previous years, and I recognized visitors from Korea, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Hong Kong, India, Israel, U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. There were not many visitors from the U.S. and Europe in past years, but this year was an exception. A few major circuit board manufacturers in Korea and Taiwan sent more than 10 people to the exhibition.

European and American visitors told me their purpose for attending the exhibition was to research new technological trends for cutting edge circuit boards. They were also trying to secure vendors to fill their materials and manufacturing equipment distribution pipeline. This tells me that European and American manufacturers are considering an expansion into the high-end segments.

Asian visitors had similar agendas; however, their primary goal was to study and acquire knowledge for leading edge technologies. One Korean engineer told me that they were considering developing the same technologies as Japanese manufacturers. In the short run, they will be great customers; however, in the long run, they will become competitors for Japanese manufacturers.

There were many foreign companies with display booths at the show this year. American and European (including Israel) representatives promoted high-end technologies; their primary targets were Japanese customers and secondary targets were Korean and Taiwanese. Chinese and Taiwanese companies hoped to enter the market with low cost circuit boards and materials used in low-end applications; their game plan was to attract the bottom feeders in Japan. Conversely, Korean companies paraded their high-end products for circuit boards, materials and equipment, claiming its technological levels was almost equivalent to their peers. Unfortunately, due to high expenses, it may be too cost prohibitive for Korean manufacturers to attract and retain customers in Japan or other countries. One of my Korean associates told me that Korean manufacturers consider their primary customers are within the Korean market, and if all is well, they may consider throwing their hat into the exporting business.

The Japanese circuit board industry has posted small growths over the last several years, and is no longer the front runner in the global circuit board industry relative to production volume. I estimate total production volume from Taiwanese circuit board companies is larger. China can now boast to be the volume leader for printed circuit board production; however, Japanese manufacturers are second to none where technological levels are measured. Currently, there are more than ten Japanese circuit board manufacturers developing the next generation high-density circuit boards and flexible circuits. The only thing certain in the global electronics industry is the status quo will never be maintained.

Dominique K. Numakura


Headlines of the week

AUO (Major display device manufacturer in Taiwan) 6/5
Has developed the world first convex surface display with TFT-LCD. The radius of the convex is about 100 mm.

SII Nano Technology (Equipment manufacturer in Japan) 6/6
Has unveiled the new X ray thickness measuring system for the plating of the large size printed circuit boards.

TAMURA (Soldering material supplier in Japan) 6/4
Has developed a new halogen-free and lead-free solder paste "LFSOLDER TLF-204-NH" for high temperature profile.

Hitachi Plant (Major equipment company in Japan) 6/9
Has developed a new high-speed solder paste screen-printing machine for middle size (50 x 50 mm to 330 x 250 mm). Cycle time: 6 second per stroke.

Hitachi Chemical (Major circuit material supplier in Japan) 6/9
Has rolled out a series of new heat resistant copper clad laminates for high frequency circuit boards.

Asahi Kasei Electronics (Major electronics material supplier in Japan) 6/9
Has completed the expansion construction of the dry film manufacturing plant in China. The total capacity of the group became 370 million sq. meters per year.

Matsushita Electric Works (Major circuit material supplier in Japan) 6/9
Has rolled out a series of new heat resistant copper clad laminates "HIPER Series R-1755V" for automobile circuit boards.

YAMAHA (Equipment manufacturer in Japan) 6/9
Has released a new double side contact type open/short tester "MP160" for semiconductor package substrates.

JUKI (Mounting machine manufacturer in Japan) 6/10
Has rolled out a new high cost-performance chip mounting machine "KE-1070 M/L". 13,500 cph for 0603 chips by 4 nozzles.

Oki Cable (Second tier cable manufacturer in Japan) 6/11
Has developed a new type of flexible circuit with low dielectric constant (2.5) and tangent delta (0.001) for 3D wiring.

Mitsui Metal Mining (Major copper foil supplier in Japan) 6/11
Has developed the world thinnest dielectric layer (8 micron thick) for the embedded capacitance of the multi-layer boards.

Dai Nippon Screen (Equipment manufacturer in Japan) 6/10
Has commercialized a new AOI machine "PI-9000" with the fastest processing speed for the HDI semiconductor substrates.

Sangyo Times (Industry media in Japan) 6/11
Has released manufacturer ranking for Japanese circuit board manufacturers. 1st: Ibiden, 2nd: NOK, 3rd: NTK, 4th: CMK.

MCK (Equipment manufacturer in Japan) 6/11
Has developed a new vacuum type RTR laminator for the coverlay lamination process of the flexible circuits.

Mitsui High Tech (Packaging material supplier in Japan) 6/11
Has developed a new lead frame series HMT (Hybrid Manufacturing Technolocy) package for automobile applications.