The theme of this year’s JPCA show, which ended last Friday at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center, is “Collaboration.” JPCA itself changed their name last year to better reflect the new realities of the interconnect manufacturing industry, where packaging, flexible circuitry, and high density interconnect now make up the most dynamic market segments, and where collaboration—in technology, in cross licensing, in design, and in realization—are more important than ever before. The consolidation is that of the Japanese interconnect industry’s hold on the leading edge of technology.

The show floor on Wednesday, the first day was decidedly slow. Steady, and good quality visitors, but slow. Thursday was an entirely different story. Very busy, and large crowds around many of the most innovative and interesting machines and products. Flashing lights and pretty girls in space suits help as well. The area reserved for interconnect manufacturers was very interesting. In addition to the many Japanese manufacturers such as Ibiden, Meiko, CMK, and others, there were a number of companies from Korea, Taiwan and China showing some excellent technology. Hans-Gerd Vousten of Ruwel AG in Germany, who also exhibited, explained that they are a vendor to many Japanese customers globally, and that the JPCA show is an excellent opportunity to establish a market presence with Japanese OEMs.

This year’s show was one of evolutionary advances rather than the revolutionary. Business is good, and with the higher margins on high technology product, the Japanese industry does not face the same pricing dilemmas seen elsewhere with the rise in raw materials costs. The price of copper or of laminate does not impact profit margins on BGA substrates and other high end products to the extent it does the commodity market. Caution prevails, however, after four bad years, and a fundamental shift in the identity of the Japanese market, where now over 50% of production by Japan based interconnect manufacturers is overseas, and has led to concern about quite what is Japanese.

The market for equipment is robust. Many manufacturers of high complexity, high technology equipment are quoting lead times of 6-12 months. One of the major drilling machine manufacturers stated off the record that they had shipped 200 units and take orders for 300 more last month. There is expansion in Japan, but most of this capacity is for use in China, Thailand, and Vietnam. Orders from the US and Europe are also increasing.

50m lines and spaces are in volume production, albeit with challenging yields, while one of the other major concerns is registration accuracy. Paul Barlow of AT&S in Shanghai stated that this is the major issue facing the industry today. There was much discussion of the economics of stepping imaging systems versus direct imaging systems for high volume production because many companies feel that these are the only real alternatives in manufacturing high technology product. There are now five vendors of direct imaging systems, including Hitachi Via Mechanic, Orbotech, Dainippon Screen, Fuji Film, and Pentax, whose purchase by ORC Manufacturing Company (Japan) was announced at the show. “This is a good sign for other LDI makers because the largest maker of conventional photo-exposure equipment pays attention to LDI,” said industry analyst Dr. Hayao Nakahara.

Other manufacturers of registration tooling, inspection equipment and other related technologies echoed the trend towards ±5μ. In materials, Taiyo introduced a photoimageable solder mask that, under the conditions used by Japanese manufacturers, can expose at 10-20 Mj/cm² and in those used by North American manufacturers, who tend to use a thicker coating, at 30-40Mj/cm².

In drilling, 350,000RPM spindles were offered as an advanced product by one manufacturer, while another is now delivering mechanical drilling systems capable of producing sub 100μ (.004”) holes in high volume. Virtually every drilling equipment manufacturer globally is fully booked at the moment.

In the lead free arena, with 30 days left until implementation in Europe, companies are discovering even more challenges in successful implementation. One manufacturer of solder paste is offering a special “anti cracking” formulation to compensate for the increase in Young’s modulus (the level of stiffness of a given material, diamond = 1050, rubber = 0.01) and reduced “give” with lead free interconnects. One advantage of using lead has been that there is some inherent ability to absorb shock in the solder joint.

Another conversation revolved around designing in an aramid or other resin layer with a lower Young’s Modulus on the outer layer to allow for some flexural improvement in the interconnect. In another effect of lead free implementation, the solder paste inspection market is heating up because lead free pastes don’t wet to themselves in the same manner as lead containing ones do, thus requiring significantly improved paste printing processes. All in all, while Japan leads the world in lead free implementation, much needs to be done yet.

One AOI supplier introduced an interesting concept. Format issues between AOI, CAM, and direct imaging can cause data corruption and increased defect levels when operating equipment from multiple suppliers. Their concept was to offer a simple, easy to use interface which virtually eliminates these issues. In the general AOI arena, there was little new to report. A number of leading edge Japanese manufacturers are running 50μ lines and spaces, and the systems to inspect these geometries are available. Final inspection, or AVI systems, that inspect for scratches, pinholes, foreign materials, stains, and other surface defects are entering widespread use with a number of vendors. The Japanese ability to deliver “beautiful” product is being further enhanced.

Via hole filling was an esoteric but important topic at several booths. Vacuum assisted screen printing to help fill both through holes and microvias was exhibited by two manufacturers, who reported excellent response and interest. A niche, but an important one.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics took a license for B2it technology from Dainippon Printing, the current owner of the B2it technology, which was originally developed by Toshiba Corporation.

Attendance at the show—approximately 100,000 people—was overwhelmingly from Asia. But beware the numbers: attendees are counted for each day they attend; not once per show. Koreans, Chinese, Taiwanese, Thais and others all look, and rightly so, to the JPCA show as a forum for new technologies and education. One innovation this year was to hold some of the technical seminars right on the show floor. The ones attend by the author were very well attended and despite the language barrier, seemed to be well run and informative. Few Westerners were in attendance at the show, which is a shame. The technology is not getting any easier, and if we are to compete, we must learn wherever we can, whenever we can. John Savic of Motorola – Schaumberg was there to look at advances in embedded passive technologies and was quite impressed by the quality of the technology and professionalism of the exhibitors. A few American printed circuit manufacturers attended, but very few. Perhaps as the industry climate improves, more will attend next year. It’s a global market, and gold is where you find it.