Packages from abroad

Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), the global industry association serving the manufacturing supply chains for the microelectronic, display, and photovoltaic industries (www.semi.org), follows significant trends in the industry. Recently, it noted one in the packaging industry.

SEMI has seen strong growth of semiconductor assembly in China over the past several years (see Fig. 1 ). And where China initially focused on manufacturing mature packaging products — mostly low- and mid-pin-count plastic packages that’s changing. According to a report from SEMI issued early this year (China Semiconductor Packaging Market Outlook, Jan. 2010), “Substrate-based packaging … has exhibited rapid growth in China, mainly under the direction of foreign-backed companies and joint-ventures. Ball grid array (BGA), chip scale packaging (CSP), wafer level packaging (WLP), and system-in-package (SIP) technologies will eventually become mainstream in China.”

Fig. 1. Most major semiconductor manufacturers now have one or more fabs in China capable of producing advanced devices.

Through Silicon Via (TSV) technology for CMOS image sensors is already in mass production, and local manufacturers are also taking on advanced assembly technologies like SIP and “green” packaging with funding support from the Chinese government. SEMI forecasts that the China packaging material market will reach $3.1 billion in 2011 (see Fig. 2 ), giving a compound annual growth rate of 20% from 2004 to 2011.

Fig. 2. The Chinese packaging industry is undergoing phenomenal growth.

With this kind of revenue, it will not be surprising to see entirely new advanced packaging designs being developed by Chinese companies, enabling a new wave of semiconductor devices that will originate there. These packages and devices will not only satisfy the growing demands of a more affluent Chinese population, but will also likely become the standards upon which new types of global consumer goods are based.

The development of advanced packaging technologies is being strongly supported by the Chinese government, and it may well be a model that the rest of the world will have to follow if it wishes to remain competitive.