news briefing
     According to a report published by the Topology Research Institute, it is estimated that the annual production capacity of ABF substrate will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18.6% (2019-2023), while the average monthly production capacity will reach 331 million units by 2023. However, these production levels still fall short of market demand, which has now reached a level of 345 million units.

impact analysis
       2019-2023 is a period of rapid increase of 5G penetration in the market. From infrastructure-related equipment (base stations, switches, servers, storage devices, etc.), to relay networks (wired/wireless routers) to consumer products (smart phones, various types of IoT products), all will be subject to the stage of large-scale replacement. Therefore, CPUs, GPUs, application processors, FPGAs, and various types of ASIC chips, etc. will all be upgraded as they have to support higher-speed networks and computing environments. As such, IC substrate (especially ABF) should become the PCB product that benefits the most from the upgrade process. 
        
    Although the primary suppliers of IC substrates around the world include Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, IC substrates are highly related to the semiconductor industry. According to an estimation based on competition among semiconductor players in the next three years, the global status of semiconductors originating in Taiwan will be much more enhanced compared to that of the past because of delayed yield rates or scheduling from Samsung and Intel. In this context, IC substrates from Taiwan will, on one hand, be ushered with brand new business opportunities on the demand side (timing), whereas on the other hand, the growth of semiconductors will become a lot more conducive to sales promotion (favorable geographical position) in the next few years. If high-end technology can be further advanced as it is supplemented by optimized production management (support of the people), it is highly likely that we will be embracing a new rosy prospect of the IC substrate industry in Taiwan in the future.

    According to statistics from the first half of 2020, the ranking proportion of output value among each of Taiwan's PCB products is as follows: multi-layer board (29.5%), flexible board (23.2%), HDI board (20.5%) and IC substrate (14.1%). If manufacturers of IC substrates can seize this opportunity and reap the benefits it offers, they can, in addition to its enhanced global status, help the trade improve its overall resilience when confronted with obstacles from major events as the layout among various products becomes more balanced.