Report scope and objectives 5

Glossary 6

Authors 7

Companies cited in this report 8

The three pages report summary 9

Comparison with 2018’s report 12

• Major trends since 2018
• What we got “right” and “wrong”
• Advanced IC substrate unit comparison
• SLP unit comparison
• Embedded die unit comparison by market

Executive summary 18

Introduction 61

• Hints for reading
• Terminology
• Segmentation and global trends

Advanced IC substrates 70

• What’s new and segmentation
• Trends and drivers
  – Advanced IC substrate trends and drivers
• Forecasts
  – Total advanced IC substrate market by revenue, units, geographical area
  – Breakdown by FCBGA vs CSP by revenue, units
  – FO impact on the FC revenue
  – Capacity forecast by number of panels per month
• Technology and roadmaps
  – Flip Chip IC substrate VS FO: L/S scaling
  – Commercialized products: dimensions vs I/O
• Supply chain and players
  – Semiconductor supply chain with IC substrate makers
  – IC substrate players
  – Business model example for some advanced IC substrate makers
• Conclusions

SLP 119

• What’s new and segmentation
• Trends and drivers
  – SLP trends and drivers
  – Apple smartphones board analysis
• Forecasts
  – Total SLP market revenue
  – SLP revenue breakdown by products
  – SLP revenue and units VS global cell phone board market
  – SLP smartphone revenue breakdown by country
• Technology and roadmaps
  – SLP roadmap
• Supply chain and players
  – SLP supply chain and potential business activities
  – SLP manufacturing capabilities by country
• Conclusions

Embedded die 155

• What’s new and segmentation
• Trends and drivers
  – ED trends and drivers
• Forecasts
  – ED market revenue and units, breakdown by market
  – Two different scenarios: basic and optimistic
  – EMIB units production
• Technology and roadmap
  – ED technology details by player and type
  – ED roadmap
• ED markets, players and supply chain
  – ED segmentation
  – Different ED market and applications
  – ED players by technology segment
  – ED supply chain
• Conclusions

Financial analysis 243

• Top 116 board makers by revenue 2017
• Top 116 board makers revenue repartition by country
• Focus on top 20 board makers, revenue, YoY growth, who is doing what
• Pushed financial analysis on top 10 board makers
  – Revenue comparison 2016 to 2018
  – Net income comparison 2016 to 2018
  – Ranking evolution

China substrate regulations 256

• How China’s environmental regulations are impacting the substrate makers

Appendix 262

• Board
• Techniques of embedding technology

About Yole Développement 274

THE ADVANCED SUBSTRATE INDUSTRY HAS STARTED TO INNOVATE TO KEEP UP WITH ADVANCED PACKAGING TRENDS

The integrated circuit (IC) substrate and board industry has historically assumed a passive role, especially when it comes to innovation. However, in the past few years, the landscape has become increasingly competitive. Industry players are looking to differentiate from others.

The advanced substrate industry is now following the trends of advanced packaging. Miniaturization, greater integration and higher performance are becoming mainstream in this industry. Huge investments by several players are ongoing for embedded die (ED) and substrate-like printed circuit board (SLP), showing the increased interest in such technology.

The substrate and printed circuit board (PCB) global market will record a modest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 4% from 2018-2024. But, if we only consider advanced substrate technology as SLP and ED technology, they exhibit a much higher growth rate, up to 49% CAGR2018-2024 for ED.

Flip Chip (FC), SLP and ED are gaining market share from the conventional board and IC substrate markets. That’s especially true for SLP and ED, which have the capability to reduce either the board or IC substrate footprint. Undoubtedly, these technologies can address the integrational needs of applications in this new digital age, but bring complexity and demand innovation before production and adoption take place. In addition, such technology bring huge value into the market. Hence it is not surprising they are expected to fetch a higher average selling price (ASP) and better revenue. In this report, Yole Développement (Yole) will detail FC, SLP and ED trends and their usage in different markets and applications. Yole’s analsyts will provide in-depth information about the markets, applications, numbers, roadmaps, players and supply chains.

INCREASED SLP ADOPTION BY LEADING OEMS IS DRIVING MARKET GROWTH SIGNIFICANTLY

The global SLP market is valued at $987M in 2018 and is expected to grow through to 2024, driven by the global cell-phone market.

Presently, the SLP market is still heavily dependent on high end smartphone growth, particularly Apple iPhones and Samsung Galaxies. Moving forward, Huawei is expected to release high-end products with SLP technology in 2019. Furthermore, cell-phone-producing OEMs are planning to use SLP in other consumer electronic products like smartwatches and tablets. SLP will become more mainstream than ever before.

Currently, SLP manufacturers from Taiwan, South Korea and Japan are dominating production activities. Players like Japan-headquartered Meiko and Taiwan-headquartered ZD Tech are expanding new SLP production lines in Vietnam and China for more than one smartphone customer. Certainly, China will gain SLP technical know-how progressively with technology transfer from the major players.

In this report, Yole will share insights on SLP technology, markets, players and the supply chain. In addition, the team will also analyse the breakthroughs in SLP manufacturing and their impact on the supply chain.

EXCITING GROWTH OF EMBEDDED DIE OFFERS SUBSTRATE STACKING SOLUTION

ED is the first real substrate stacking technology on the market. Its market is valued at $21M in 2018 and is expected to reach $231M by 2024, exhibiting a 49% CAGR. This is the highest growth of all the advanced substrate platforms, and can be justified by an infant technology that will boom soon.

Yole has been studying ED technology since its early stages. Based on this expertise, we will be detailing the ED markets where mobile device makers were early adopters and will remain an important source of revenue.

We foresee a bright future for ED. Firstly, this is due to extended adoption in new automotive applications. It is also due to the telecom and infrastructure market where ED is a suitable solution to increase hardware efficiency. Secondly, players are investing huge amounts in new plants where ED will be the main product. Supported by major OEMs, Yole believes that an ED market boost will occur in the next two years.

Nowadays, there are many players active in ED research and development, but only a few have jumped into high volume manufacturing (HVM). Based on the technology, markets dynamics, and investments detailed in this report, Yole believes that, in the near future, more players will enter ED HVM and contribute to the adoption of this technology.

Access semiconductor, AMD, Amkor, Apple, ASE, AT&S, Audi, Avago, BMW, Bosch, Career, CCTC, Celestica, Chin Poon, ChipBond, ChipMOS, CMK, Compeq, Continental, Cyntec, Daeduck, Daimler AG, Deca Technologies, Dyconex AG, Ericsson, Facebook, Fast Print, Flex, Flexium, Founder, Ford, Foxconn, Fujikura, Fraunhofer IZM, GaN systems, General Electric, Google, HannStar Board, HiSilicon, Huawei, Ibiden, IMEC, Infineon, Intel, JCET, J-devices, Kinsus, Kyocera, Korea circuit, LG Innotek, Meiko, Mflex, Microsemi, Nanium, Nantong Fujitsu, Nan Ya PCB, Nepes, Nippon Mektron, Nvidia, Omnivision, Oppo, Qdos, Qorvo, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sarda Technologies, Schweizer, SEMCO, Shennan Circuit, Shinko, Simmtech, SiPlus, SPIL, STATS ChipPAC, St Jude Medical, Starkey, Taiyo Yuden, TDK-EPCOS, Texas Instruments, TTM Technologies, Tripod, Trigence, TSMC, Unimicron, Unisem, UTAC, Valeo, Wus Group, Würth Elektronik, Wuzhou, Xiaomi,Young Poong Group, ZD Tech, … and many more