Advanced IC Substrates Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

Advanced IC Substrates Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The advanced IC substrate market (henceforth, referred to as the 'market studied') was valued at USD 7.73 billion in 2020, and it is expected to reach USD 11.07 billion by 2026, with a CAGR of 6.2% over the forecast period 2021-2026.​ Players are continuously advancing over the packaging technologies to answer their stringent requirements with a smaller footprint, higher performances, and lower power consumption. The demand for consumer electronics and mobile communication devices drives electronics manufacturers to deliver ever-more compact and portable products.

Key Highlights

• The advanced substrate industry follows miniaturization trends, greater integration, and higher performance, thereby, making huge investments by several players across the ongoing ED and SLP packaging and showing an increased interest in such technologies.
• The higher power density and board integration result in thermal benefits, thereby, enabling further improvements in system reliability. Such technology brings huge value to the market due to extended adoption across automotive applications.
• It is also driving across the telecom and infrastructure segment, where ED is a suitable substrate solution for increased hardware efficiency. Due to this, players are investing huge amounts in new plants where ED is expected to be the main product constituent.
• With the COVID-19 outbreak, the IC substrate production came to an abrupt end in China from February 2020 to March 2020. Thus, this influenced the demand for the product, worldwide, and influenced the price. With the increasing number of cases in the United States, the North American electronics industry is under pressure due to the lack of raw materials and products, as the global supply chain is disrupted.
• The growing deployment plans for 5G by countries around the world is expected to further boost the market demand for advanced IC substrate. According to Ericsson, the global 5G subscription, by the end of 2025, is expected to reach 2.6 billion and global coverage of up to 65%, and generate 45% of the global traffic, thus, driving the demand for 5G-enabled devices such as smartphones, network devices, and other infrastructure devices.

Key Market TrendsRising Application of Advanced Substrates in Manufacturing of IoT Equipment and Mobiles to Drive the Market Growth

• The global demand for IoT is augmented by the consumer and industrial sectors, as the growing application of the technology is driving the demand from both sectors. According to the Internet & Television Association, by 2020, the global growth of IoT was expected to reach 50.1 billion units. ​
• The growth in demand is augmenting the vendors to produce IoT specific chipsets. Some of the major IoT chipset vendors operating in the market include Altair, Huawei, Intel, Qualcomm, Samsung, and Sierra, among others. Moreover, Qualcomm's networking solutions for Wi-Fi environments, such as Pro 1200, are embedded with FCBGA. ​
• With the increase in sheer numbers of IoT devices, the chip requirement for building IoT devices is expected to skyrocket over the forecast period. Moreover, the innovation in reducing energy consumption, combined with the miniaturization of chips, is likely to be the priority of manufacturers. ​
• The growth in IoT is helping IC substrate manufacturers. For instance, Apple is moving to adopt TSMC's antenna in package technology and ASE's FC_AiP process, to package mmWave antenna for its 5G iPhones and 5G iPads set to launch in 2020. The growth in IoT has resulted in greater use of the latest semiconductor packages that can enhance the performance of ICs and minimize the cost in various instances. ​
• On the vendor front, Unimicron makes high-value IC substrates, such as FC CSP (Flip Chip Chip Scale Package), and supplying them to Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Broadcom. Toward smartphones, the majority of Wafer Level (WL) CSP volume is driven by smartphone demand as it remains the biggest consumer for this platform.

Asia Pacific to Register the Fastest Growth During the Forecast Period

• The growth of the semiconductor packaging manufacturer in the region correlates with the end user's growth in the region as the fastest-growing market for smartphones, thereby, witnessing a rising investment in renewable and automotive (EVs specifically), among various others.
• For 2020, SEMI estimated the equipment market recovery to be fueled by advanced logic and foundry and new projects in China, as well as memory(to a lesser extent). SEMI also forecasted that China would remain the second large market for equipment, led by Taiwan and Korea. In addition, according to Semiconductor Industry Association, the semiconductor sales in the country have been rising from USD 13.28 billion in December 2020 to USD 14.47 billion in March 2021.
• Some of the prominent players across the region have invested in the advancement in IC fabrication technology. For instance, Taiwan-based Powertech Technology announced an investment of more than USD 1.68 billion in the country, in an advanced factory, to ride on the next technology wave of high-performance computing and connected cars. This is set to fuel innovation in the advanced IC substrates in the applications mentioned above.
• Moreover, investments in the smartphone segment in the Asia Pacific countries are expected to drive the demand for advanced IC substrates. For instance, in May 2021, AT&S, an Austrian Electronics Component supplier, announced that it is investing EUR 450 million in expanding capacity in its Chongqing factory.

Competitive Landscape

The advanced IC substrates market is moderately competitive and consists of a few major players. In terms of market share, some of the players currently dominate the market. However, with advancements in IC packaging technology, new players are increasing their market presence, thereby, expanding their business footprint across emerging economies.

• June 2021- AT&S announced plans to develop a new IC substrates production plant in Southeast Asia, subject to Supervisory Board permission. Furthermore, Between 2021 and 2026, a new production complex for high-end substrates will be built for a total investment of up to EUR 1.7 billion.
• May 2020- Board of Directors of Unimicron Corporation approved to adjust the expected investment amount in expanding the high-class IC flip chip substrate factory from 2019 to 2023. The investment was adjusted from NTD 20 billion to NTD 28.5 billion.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support

Companies Mentioned

ASE Kaohsiung (ASE Inc.)
AT&S Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik AG
Siliconware Precision Industries Co. Ltd
TTM Technologies Inc.
IBIDEN Co. Ltd
KYOCERA Corporation
Fujitsu Ltd
STATS ChipPAC Pte. Ltd
Shinko Electric Industries Co. Ltd
Kinsus Interconnect Technology Corp.
Unimicron Corporation

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