China-based PCB maker Shennan Circuits has disclosed plans to invest a total of CNY6 billion (US$925.3 million) in building production lines for ABF substrates, making it the first Chinese maker to venture into the segment and marking a big step forward in pursuing China's self-supply for high-end IC substrates, according to industry sources.
The investment project will be carried out by a wholly-owned substrate subsidiary newly established by Shennan, and will result in an annual production capacity of 200 million ABF-based FCBGA substrates for processing HPC and networking chips, the sources said.
Shennan has already scored significant achievements in manufacturing BT-based substrates for processing MEMS and memory modules, but still lags far behind the leader group in developing higher-end BT-based FCCSP substrates for packaging handset SoCs or BT substrates for SiP and AiP modules, the sources continued.
Accordingly, the sources stressed, Shennan's decision to join the production of even more advanced ABF substrates is of great significance to China's PCB and IC substrate industry, given huge investment funds and high technology threshold involved as well as great difficulty in landing orders from major vendors of HPC and networking chips.
Currently, China-based vendors of HPC and networking chips mainly rely on Taiwan makers for the supply of ABF substrates to process their chips, but they are also expected to place substantial orders with Shennan once its technology and production capacity can meet their requirements, the sources said.
