(Report producer/author: Founder Securities, Zhang Minglei)
1 Benefiting from the east wind of the industry, the packaging materials market continues to expand
1.1 Downstream applications are developing rapidly, and the packaging industry has broad prospects
Packaging is one of the three important links of integrated circuits. The integrated circuit industry chain mainly has three core links: IC design, wafer manufacturing (also known as front-end process), and packaging and testing (also known as back-end process). Among them, IC packaging is a series of processes such as cutting, dicing, wafer mounting, wire bonding, bonding, packaging, electroplating, and molding of the finished wafer, and the chip is packaged on the substrate lead frame and a protective layer is added. Packaging mainly plays the role of placing, fixing, sealing, protecting chips, as well as ensuring circuit performance and heat dissipation performance, etc., with the development of chip technology, packaging also plays a role in functional integration and system testing.
Electronic packaging technologies cover a wide range of technologies and can be divided into four different grades: Level 0 to Level 3 packages. In the entire semiconductor packaging process, the first is level 0 packaging, which refers to the process of wafer dicing; This is followed by a Level 1 package, which is essentially a chip-scale package; This is followed by Level 2 packaging, which refers to the mounting of a chip to a module or circuit card; Finally, there is the 3-level package, which refers to the circuit card with the chip and module mounted on the system board. In the semiconductor industry, semiconductor packaging generally involves only wafer dicing and chip-scale packaging processes.
Driven by performance and cost control, after many evolutionary iterations, the packaging technology has developed from the original bonded traditional packaging to the current advanced multi-dimensional and highly integrated packaging. Traditional packaging is to cut the wafer into a die, the die is bonded to the corresponding substrate, and then the wire is used to connect the bonding pad of the die to the pins of the substrate to achieve electrical connection, and finally protect it with a shell. Advanced packaging improves the integration and interconnection speed of chips, with "miniaturization, thinness, narrow pitch, and high integration" as the main characteristics, and advanced packaging methods include flip-chip FLIP-chip, wafer-level packaging WLCSP, fan-out packaging INFO, and 2.5D/3D. At present, there is no clear substitution relationship between the two technologies of traditional packaging and advanced packaging, according to the complexity of the product process, packaging form, packaging technology, whether the materials used in the packaging products are at the forefront of the industry, the traditional packaging has the advantages of high cost performance, strong product versatility, low cost of use, and wide application fields, and advanced packaging can improve product functions and reduce costs at the same time under the background of the current development of Moore's law, which is the future development direction of the packaging and testing industry.
With the rapid development of automotive electronics, artificial intelligence, data centers and other application fields, the global packaging and testing market continues to rise, and the global packaging and testing market size will be about $81.5 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $96.1 billion by 2026. In the subdivided field, traditional packaging is mainly used in automobiles, consumer electronics, industrial applications and other fields, and the core chips such as analog chips, power devices, discrete devices, and MCUs in related fields have low requirements for miniaturization and high integration, and high requirements for reliability and stability, and will continue this trend for a long time in the future, so the traditional packaging market is expected to maintain stable growth, according to Yole statistics, the global traditional packaging market size will be about $43 billion in 2022, and it is expected to be 2021-2026 The annual CAGR is 2.3%. Advanced packaging is mainly used in high-end consumer electronics, artificial intelligence, data centers and other fast-growing application fields, its growth is better than traditional packaging, and it is expected that the proportion of advanced packaging and testing market will continue to increase, and the global advanced packaging market size will rise from $35 billion to $48.2 billion from 2021 to 2026, with a CAGR of nearly 7%, which is expected to contribute major increments to the global packaging and testing market.
The global semiconductor industry chain has shifted to China, and the scale of the mainland packaging and testing market is expected to continue to rise. In 2022, the scale of the packaging and testing industry in mainland China will grow slightly, reaching 299.5 billion yuan, and with the vigorous development of emerging applications such as 5G, HPC, and automotive electronics on the demand side, it is expected to inject impetus into the continuous growth of the packaging and testing industry, and the scale of China's packaging and testing market is expected to reach 324.84 billion yuan in 2026. In addition, with the development of new applications such as 5G, high-end consumer electronics, and artificial intelligence, as well as the transformation of existing products to advanced packaging technologies such as SiP and WLP, the advanced packaging market is growing at a high rate. At the same time, the main investment of domestic packaging and testing enterprises is concentrated in the field of advanced packaging, which is expected to drive a rapid increase in output value, and it is expected that the output value of advanced packaging in mainland China will reach 133 billion yuan in 2023, accounting for about 39% of the total packaging market.
1.2 Solid support for the packaging link, and the demand for packaging materials continues to grow
Encapsulation materials are the upstream support of the packaging and testing process, and their use runs through the packaging and testing process, which can be divided into raw materials and auxiliary materials. Among them, raw materials are an integral part of the package, which has a direct impact on product quality and reliability; Auxiliary materials, on the other hand, are not part of the product and are only used during the encapsulation process and are removed after use. In the traditional packaging process, the organic composite materials used as raw materials include six kinds of adhesives, substrates, epoxy resin molding compounds, lead frames, lead wires and solder balls, and the latter three are metal materials; Auxiliary materials include adhesive tapes and fluxes, among others. Specifically:
(1) The lead frame is used to realize the electrical connection between the chip inside the package and the printed circuit board (PCB) outside the package, and the metal plate used is usually made of iron-based alloy 42 alloy or copper alloy. (2) The substrate mainly plays the role of carrying the protective chip and connecting the upper chip and the lower circuit board, including the copper, glass fiber and other materials used in the production of basic semiconductor devices. (3) The adhesive is mainly made of thermosetting epoxy-based polymers, which are used to bond chips to lead frames or substrates, and can also bond multiple chips together during the chip stacking process. (4) Epoxy resin molding compound is a kind of capsule packaging material used in the semiconductor packaging process, which is composed of inorganic silica and thermosetting epoxy polymer, which mainly protects the chip from external physical and chemical damage, and can effectively dissipate the heat generated during the operation of the chip. (5) In semiconductor packaging, solder is used to connect the package and the printed circuit board; In a flip chip package, solder is used to connect the chip to the substrate. (6) Leads are used to connect chips and substrates, chips and lead frames, or chips to chips, and are usually made of high-purity gold. However, due to the relatively high manufacturing cost, at present, copper wire is gradually replacing gold wire. (7) Adhesive tapes include tapes that permanently bond solid surfaces with homogeneous or heterogeneous surfaces, as well as temporary adhesive tapes such as dicing tapes (to ensure that the chips on the wafer do not fall off during wafer dicing) and backside grinding protection tapes (to protect devices on wafers during the backside grinding process).
With the continuous progress of technology and the continuous expansion of application fields, the product structure of semiconductor packaging materials is also changing. At present, among the many sub-products of packaging materials in the world, the scale of packaging substrates accounts for the highest proportion, accounting for about 40.1% in 2021, followed by bonding wires, lead frames, packaging materials, ceramic substrates, die bonding materials, etc., accounting for 15%, 14.9%, 12.9%, 11.1% and 4% respectively.
With the continuous development of new technologies and the continuous promotion of application fields, there is a demand for more advanced and diversified packaging materials, which leads to the continuous expansion of the market scale of semiconductor packaging materials. Globally, according to the International Semiconductor Industry Association, the global semiconductor packaging materials market reached $26.1 billion in 2022, driven by the increasing demand for new electronic innovations, and is expected to reach $29.8 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 2.7%. According to Huajing Industry Research Institute, the market size of the semiconductor packaging materials industry in the mainland will reach 46.3 billion yuan in 2022, and it is expected that the semiconductor packaging materials industry in the mainland will continue to maintain a rapid development momentum to meet the changing market demand.
In terms of the competitive landscape, large multinational companies occupy a dominant position, and the country is expected to achieve self-sufficiency in the future. The semiconductor packaging materials industry has high technical requirements and requires continuous technological research and development and innovation. Large multinational companies have strong technical strength and R&D capabilities, and can continue to launch new products and technologies to maintain a leading position. At present, the global semiconductor packaging materials market is mainly occupied by large multinational companies such as Japan and South Korea; Some Chinese mainland manufacturers have also been among the top in recent years, successfully occupying a certain market share. On the whole, the current degree of self-sufficiency in semiconductor packaging materials is relatively high, and it is expected to achieve domestic self-sufficiency in the future.
2. With the rapid development of the information industry, the trend of high frequency and high speed of copper clad laminates is significant
2.1 The cornerstone of the electronics industry, the PCB industry has a broad market space
Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are the cornerstone of the electronics industry and play a vital role in electronic devices. Printed circuit board refers to the printed board that forms inter-point connection and printed components on the general substrate according to the predetermined design, and its main function is to provide mechanical support for each component in the circuit, and at the same time, each component group is connected and transmits electrical signals according to a specific circuit. The manufacturing quality of PCB not only directly affects the reliability of electronic information products, but also affects the integrity of signal transmission between electronic components.
There are many types of PCBs that can be divided according to different classification criteria. (1) According to different materials, PCB can be divided into organic material board and inorganic material board, the printed circuit board composed of ceramic and aluminum materials is the main inorganic board type, and the organic board is mainly resin. (2) from the structural point of view, can be divided into rigid board, flexible board and rigid-flex board, the printed circuit board made of phenolic paper, epoxy paper, polyester glass felt and other materials is a rigid board, and the flexible circuit board generally adopts polyimide material as the matrix. (3) according to the number of layers to distinguish, can be divided into single-sided board, double-sided board and multi-layer board again, single-sided board is only one side has the single-layer board with copper-clad layer, and both sides of double-layer board have copper-clad layer for wiring and placement components. (4) In addition, according to different application fields, PCB can also be divided into civil printed plates, industrial printed boards, military printed boards and aerospace printed boards, among which civil printed boards develop the fastest, industrial printed boards are the largest, and military printed boards have higher requirements for stability and some special functions. Each PCB has its own unique application scenarios and technical characteristics, providing a stable and reliable foundation for electronic products in different fields.
The transfer of global PCB production capacity and the rapid development of the electronic information industry have driven new opportunities for China's PCB industry. The global PCB output value as a whole is showing a steady upward trend, and with the downstream growth of 5G communications, consumer electronics, and automotive electronics, it is expected that the global PCB output value will increase from US$70.510 billion in 2021 to US$91.277 billion in 2026, with a CAGR of 5.3%. In addition, due to the rising production costs, the global PCB production capacity is gradually shifting to China, providing a huge market space and development opportunities for the domestic PCB industry. At the same time, with the development of a new generation of information technology such as big data, cloud computing, and 5G communications, the demand for servers and data storage is growing at a high rate, and the vigorous development of the electronic information industry has boosted the rapid development of the PCB industry, and the development of automotive electronics has also brought new market demand to the PCB industry, and it is expected that the PCB output value in Chinese mainland will increase from US$37.328 billion in 2021 to US$48.618 billion in 2026, with a CAGR of 5.43%, highlighting China's PCB The industry's potential for continued growth and its significant position in the global PCB industry.
The concentration of the global printed circuit board industry is not high, and China's PCB industry presents a situation of "hundreds of schools of thought". The global PCB industry is mainly distributed in China, Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States, with many manufacturers and low industry concentration. With the transfer of global PCB production capacity in recent years, the mainland has now become the largest region in the global PCB industry, and the domestic PCB industry has gradually formed a situation of "hundreds of schools of thought". Manufacturers from Taiwan and Japan still occupy a leading position in the domestic market, while Chinese mainland enterprises are growing rapidly. According to Prismark, China Electronic Circuit Industry Association and China Electronic Information Industry Federation, the mainland PCB industry can be divided into 3 competitive echelons according to enterprises, the first echelon is the TOP10 of the world's top 100 PCB companies in 2021, such as Pengding Holdings, Xinxing Group, Dongshan Precision, Huatong, Japan NOK and Shennan Circuit, etc.; The second echelon is the TOP40 members of the top 100 global PCB companies in 2021, such as Kinwong Electronics, Victory Giant Technology, Kingboard Group, Suntak Technology and other enterprises; The third echelon is the 21st (2021) PCB list of enterprises in China's electronic circuit industry, including Shengyi Electronics, Wuzhu Technology, Bomin Electronics, Zhongjing Electronics, Aohong Electronics and other enterprises. Overall, the mainland PCB enterprises are developing rapidly, the industry is full of flowers, and the overall competitiveness in the world is strong.
2.2 PCB core raw materials, industrial upgrading has given rise to high-frequency and high-speed demand for copper clad laminates
Copper clad laminate (CCL) is the core raw material of PCB, accounting for about 30% of the material cost. Copper-clad laminate is a kind of plate-like material made of wood pulp paper or glass fiber cloth as a reinforcing material, impregnated with resin, and then covered with copper foil on one or both sides and then hot-pressed. In the PCB industry chain, the copper clad laminate is in the middle position, which is made from the upstream copper ingots (copper foil), wood pulp (paper), glass fiber yarn (cloth), synthetic resin and other basic raw materials through a series of production processes, and then uses ink, etching solution to produce PCB, and finally applies to communication equipment, consumer electronics and many other fields. Copper clad laminate undertakes the three major functions of PCB conduction, insulation and support, which has a significant impact on the energy loss and transmission speed of electrical signals in the transmission process, and is an important substrate for the production of PCB, accounting for about 30% of the cost of PCB materials.
Benefiting from the development of the PCB industry, copper clad laminates have a wide range of applications. Ordinary copper clad laminates are mainly used in home appliances, automobiles and other terminal equipment; High-end copper clad laminates can be divided into high-frequency, high-speed copper clad laminates and high-density interconnection (HDI) substrates according to the different performance requirements of end applications. In addition, based on HDI-related technologies, in order to adapt to the characteristics of high-precision, high-density, miniaturization and thinness of electronic technology, the copper-clad laminate (i.e., IC substrate) for IC packaging substrate has evolved out, which is an upgrade of the traditional integrated circuit packaging lead frame and is used in various chip packaging links, which to a certain extent represents the highest technical level in the current PCB field.
With the rapid development of the electronic information industry, digital circuits have gradually entered the stage of high-speed information processing and high-frequency signal transmission, and the entire electronic system is developing in the direction of lightness, thinness, shortness, multi-functionalization, high density, high reliability, and low cost, especially in the fields of 5G, AI, cloud computing and big data, which put forward higher requirements for the performance of PCBs. In this context, the development of copper clad laminates also shows an increasing trend of demand for high-frequency, high-speed, HDI substrates and IC substrates. Trend 1: High-frequency and high-speed copper clad laminates with low dielectric constant (Dk) and low dielectric loss factor (Df) have become the mainstream of industry development. With the continuous progress of digital components, as an important part of electronic components, printed circuit boards (PCBs) that provide electrical connections between electronic components not only need to have a higher degree of integration, but also need to have larger data transmission capacity, and the necessity of PCB substrate materials with low dielectric constant (Dk) and low dielectric loss factor (Df) performance is becoming increasingly prominent. High-frequency and high-speed substrate materials mainly solve the high-frequency characteristic defects of unstable transmission performance and large loss in the fields of microwave and millimeter wave in communication, and have become the mainstream technology and trend of the development of the entire industry.
(1) High-frequency copper clad laminates
High-frequency copper clad laminates are copper clad laminates with low dielectric constant Dk and low dielectric loss Df (Df<0.005), working frequencies above 5GHz, which can be applied to the microwave/millimeter wave field. High-frequency copper clad laminate is the core raw material for the construction of 5G base stations in the field of mobile communications, and is also an important new material required for unmanned millimeter-wave radar and high-precision satellite navigation, as well as a key basic material for communication equipment, aerospace and military industries, which is closely related to national economic development and national security. Due to the smallest dielectric loss factor and the highest industry threshold, high-frequency copper clad laminates are located at the top of the pyramid in the copper clad laminate industry. There are high technical barriers to high-frequency copper clad laminates. High-frequency PCB needs to have the characteristics of high signal transmission speed, small transmission loss, excellent dielectric properties, etc., and in the production process, the manufacturing process is numerous, the process is very complex, especially the production of high-frequency copper clad laminate needs to be pressed by a constant temperature hot press at hundreds of degrees Celsius, and the high temperature will have a great interference with the stability of DK, so the processing technology level is extremely high. The stability of DK is usually achieved from the optimization and improvement of the resin material level, so the know-how of the material is one of the core barriers in the industry.
At present, high-frequency copper clad laminates are still occupied by American and Japanese manufacturers in the mainstream market. At present, the global high-frequency copper clad laminate market is still dominated by American and Japanese manufacturers, and the representative manufacturers are Rogers, Taikanli, ISOLA, Panasonic, etc. Benefiting from the advanced layout, American and Japanese manufacturers began to research the basic materials of copper clad laminates decades before the downstream market matured, and the formula accumulation was profound, and they mastered the core patents of high-frequency copper clad laminates with communication and Internet data center (IDC) needs, which brought certain patent barriers to latecomers. At present, some domestic enterprises such as Shengyi Technology, Huazheng New Materials, etc. have also begun the research and development and production of high-frequency copper clad laminates, and have caught up in terms of scale and technology, and the future domestic replacement space is huge.
(2) High-speed copper clad laminates
High-speed copper clad laminate is a high-speed digital circuit board with low transmission signal loss characteristics, its operating frequency is between 1~5GHz, with high signal transmission speed (10~50Gbps), and higher requirements for signal integrity. The terminal products of high-speed copper clad laminates are mainly servers, base stations and other communication equipment, mainly including high-end servers, high-end routers, converters, high-end data storage equipment and other products.
High-speed copper clad laminates have three characteristics: high-speed transmission, high multi-layer PCB processability, and environmental friendliness. Among them, (1) the high-speed transmission performance is two "low" and two "high", and the two "low" refers to low loss, that is, to achieve low Df and low Dk of the substrate material, and to reduce the dispersion of the transmission signal, that is, to reduce the distribution of bias circuits; The two "highs" refer to the high characteristic impedance (Zo) accuracy and the high heat dissipation for high-speed copper clad laminates. (2) The environmental friendliness of high-speed copper clad laminates requires halogen-free and lead-free compatibility of the board, which is mainly manifested in high glass transition temperature, high thermal decomposition temperature and low thermal expansion coefficient. (3) High multi-layer processability refers to the high degree of high-speed copper clad laminate in order to achieve high reliability, it needs to adapt to the processability of high multi-layer (10~50 layers) and thin HDI in terms of performance, which is mainly manifested in high dimensional stability, high damp heat resistance, high circuit/through-hole filling, and thin substrate materials. Compared with high-frequency copper clad laminates, high-speed copper clad laminates emphasize the high speed of signal transmission, so they pay more attention to the low dielectric loss of the substrate material (i.e., low DF), and emphasize the processability of high multilayer boards.
Low transmission loss is the most important and core performance of high-speed copper clad laminates. The low dielectric loss factor (Df) of high-speed copper clad laminates is the first key indicator to characterize low transmission loss, Df mainly affects the quality of signal transmission, and the smaller the Df, the smaller the signal loss. High-speed substrates are generally classified into 5 grades by Df size: conventional loss (>0.010); medium loss (0.008~0.010); Low loss (0.005~0.008); Very low loss (0.002~0.005); Ultra-low loss (<0.002). With the next generation of 6G space-to-earth interconnection and cloud computing communication putting forward higher requirements for equipment and interconnection, high-speed copper clad laminate technology must be further developed in the direction of lower loss Df and lower dielectric constant Dk.
Japanese companies of high-speed copper clad laminates have significant advantages, and domestic companies also occupy a certain share. Specifically, Japan's Panasonic Electric's high-speed copper clad laminate products are the top, with the highest market share, and deep technical barriers; Yalon's ADC series is a leader in PCB substrates for base station antennas; Taiguang's 8-prefix series focuses on environmentally friendly substrates; Domestic manufacturers Jiantao Group, Shengyi Technology, Jinan Guoji, and Nanya New Materials occupy certain advantages by virtue of low cost, heat resistance, and low loss.
Trend 2: Thin, light, and miniaturized terminal applications, superimposed on the popularization of 5G mobile phones, strengthen the growth momentum of HDI; The outlook for SLP is becoming clearer, and demand for IC substrates is outstripping supply. The application of HDI substrates has gradually been promoted from a small number of high-end devices to mid-end products, and the usage is expected to increase significantly in the future. HDI motherboards are divided into first-order, second-order, third-order, and any-order HDI motherboards, and the feature size is gradually shrinking, and the manufacturing difficulty is also gradually increasing. At present, in electronic terminal products, third-order, fourth-order or arbitrary-order HDI motherboards are widely used. In 2018, the global HDI output value was as high as 9.222 billion US dollars, of which consumer electronics mobile phone terminals accounted for 66%, computer PCs accounted for 14%, and the two together were about 80%. At the same time, with the upgrade of the communication standard to 5G, the use of RF chips, passive components and BTB connectors will increase, and a variety of low-end mobile phone manufacturers with a large number of users will adopt methods such as increasing the area of the motherboard, using a double-layer board structure or a higher order of HDI substrates to adapt to the technological iteration, further driving the increase in HDI demand. In addition, under the trend of miniaturization and functional diversification of flagship mobile devices, the number of components that need to be mounted on PCBs is increasing but the required size is shrinking, resulting in the continuous decline of PCB wire width, spacing, diameter and hole center distance of microvia discs, as well as the thickness of conductor layer and insulation layer. In addition, IC substrates are used to replace traditional lead frames in the field of high-end packaging, and have the characteristics of high density, high precision, high pitch count, high performance, miniaturization, and thinness. According to the research of the Packaging Branch of the China Semiconductor Association, the low-end wire-bonded substrate accounts for about 40%~50% of the total packaging cost, while the cost of the high-end flip chip substrate can be as high as 70%~80%.
3. The key raw materials of copper clad laminates, resin and silicon powder are booming
Copper clad laminate is a key raw material that has a great impact on the performance of the PCB, after etching the circuit on the copper clad laminate and adding electronic components, the current/electrical signal of the integrated circuit is transmitted and operated by the copper clad laminate as the substrate. Therefore, the copper clad laminate directly affects the operation performance of the integrated circuit, and the relevant raw materials of the copper clad laminate have high electrical performance requirements in practical applications. The main upstream raw materials of copper clad laminate include resin, inorganic functional materials, copper foil and glass fiber cloth, among which copper foil, resin and glass fiber cloth account for about 42%, 26% and 19% of the production cost of copper clad laminate, respectively.
3.1 Resin
The dielectric properties of copper clad laminate are determined by the dielectric properties of the two parts of the reinforcing material and the matrix resin, and when using the same reinforcing materials such as glass fiber cloth, the dielectric constant and dielectric loss of the matrix resin will directly determine the dielectric properties of the copper clad laminates. According to the requirements of signal transmission loss, copper clad laminates can be divided into five grades: standard loss, medium loss, low loss, very low loss and ultra-low loss. At present, the most commonly used body resins for copper clad laminates mainly include epoxy resin (EP), phenolic resin, polytetrafluoroethylene resin (PTFE), polyimide resin (PI), bismaleimide resin (BMI), polyester resin (PET), polyphenylene ether resin (PPO or PPE), cyanate resin (CE), etc. Among them, phenolic resin is mostly used in paper substrates, and polyester resin and polyimide resin are mostly used in flexible boards. The glass fiber cloth base copper clad laminate made of modified epoxy resin, BMI, PPO, PPE, CE, PTFE and some PI resins is mostly used for glass fiber cloth high-performance resin copper clad laminate due to its high performance.
3.1.1 Epoxy resins
Epoxy resins are widely used in the field of CCL due to their excellent properties. Epoxy resin is a kind of polymer with aliphatic, aromatic or aliphatic cyclic group as the main chain, and its main chain contains two or more epoxy groups. Epoxy resin has the advantages of excellent mechanical properties, insulation, electrical properties, chemical stability, dimensional stability, low shrinkage, strong adhesion, etc., so it is widely used in coatings, electronic appliances, adhesives, aerospace, CCL board manufacturing and other fields, especially in recent years, the demand for epoxy resin in the CCL board market has increased greatly. To meet the requirements of higher performance CCL boards, epoxy resins need to be modified. CCL plate epoxy resin has defects such as high cross-linking density, high dielectric constant, and poor resistance to dampness and heat, while the preparation of CCL plate has high requirements for the performance of epoxy resin, so it is necessary to modify the epoxy resin. At present, epoxy resins are mainly modified by blending with other resins. Dicyclopentadiene epoxy resin (DCPD epoxy resin) is a combination of bicyclopentadiene backbone and epoxy, with excellent low moisture absorption, thermal stability, low dielectric properties and high Tg, and has become the most promising epoxy resin used in medium and low loss copper clad laminates.
3.1.2 Benzooxazine resins
Benzooxazine resins are widely used in M2 and M4 grades of copper clad laminates. Benzooxazine resin is a six-membered heterocyclic structure compound containing carbon, nitrogen and oxygen elements synthesized from phenolic compounds, primary amine compounds and formaldehyde. Benzooxazine resin is gradually favored by the copper clad laminate industry because of its high heat resistance, good flame retardancy, low water absorption, excellent dielectric properties, no small molecule emission during curing, and almost zero shrinkage in volume, and has been widely used in M2 and M4 copper clad laminate plates since its successful application in the field of copper clad laminates in China in the 90s of the last century. In addition, benzoxazine resin also has good molecular design, and nearly 100 types of product types have been developed from the basic phenol-aniline type, bisphenol A-aniline type, diaminodiphenylmethane-phenol type, etc.
There are various modification methods for benzoxazine resin, and the modified resin has a great application demand in the field of high speed and high frequency. In order to make the dielectric properties more excellent, benzoxazine resin will be modified, and the current common modification methods include six kinds: the first is the introduction of fluorine elements; The second is to increase the free volume; the third is the synthesis of benzoxazine monomers containing low dielectric groups; the fourth is copolymerization of benzoxazine resins and other low-dielectric resins; the fifth is the introduction of a micro-nano pore structure; The sixth is the preparation of backbone-type benzoxazine copolymer oligomers. At present, products such as high-Tg, lead-free compatible FR-4 copper-clad laminates, lead-free compatible halogen-free flame-retardant copper-clad laminates, high-Tg, halogen-free flame-retardant copper-clad laminates have entered the stage of mass production and production, and have a broad application space in the field of high-speed and high-frequency electronic materials in the future.
3.1.3 Bismaleimide resin
Bismaleimide resin is one of the important resin varieties for the preparation of high-performance CCL board substrate materials. Bismaleimide resin is a difunctional polymer with maleimide group as the active end group, and is a kind of resin system separated from the polyimide resin system. Bismaleimide resin has good thermal stability, radiation resistance, corrosion resistance and water resistance, and has become one of the most competitive resin varieties for the preparation of high-performance CCL board substrate materials.
In practical application, the curing product of bismaleimide resin is brittle, which cannot meet the requirements of the use of resin of copper clad laminate matrix, so it is necessary to modify bismaleimide resin. Under the premise of not changing the original excellent properties of bismaleimide resin, the toughness of bismaleimide resin is enhanced by modification, and the modification methods to improve its toughness mainly include blend toughening and copolymerization toughening.
3.1.4 Polyphenylene ether resins
PPO is one of the ideal substrate materials for high-performance CCL boards. PPO is an amorphous thermoplastic developed in the 60s of the 21st century, which was successfully developed by A.S. Hey of the General Electric Company of the United States in 1956 and industrialized in 1964. PPO has excellent electrical insulation and water resistance, good dimensional stability, good electrical properties and wear resistance, and has been widely used in the copper clad laminate industry, and has become one of the ideal matrix materials for high-performance CCL boards.
At present, the commonly used PPO resin for CCL boards is methacrylate end group PPO. The dielectric dissipation factor (Df) of the methacrylate end group PPO is very low, with a Df of around 0.003 at 10GHz. In resin systems, methacrylate end group PPO is used as the host resin and other resin components containing double bonds to balance the optimal formulation, and the whole system is cured by free radical polymerization. Currently, double-ended hydroxyl PPO resins and double-ended acrylate-based PPO resins are mainly supplied by SABIC and Asahi Kasei.
3.1.5 Hydrocarbon resins
The processing performance of hydrocarbon resin is outstanding, and the development prospect in the field of high frequency and high speed is promising. Hydrocarbons are carbon chain polymers that do not contain any polar groups and are composed of only elements C and H. Due to the small electronic polarizability of the C-C and C-H bonds, hydrocarbon resins exhibit low dielectric constants and ultra-low dielectric loss factors over a wide range of frequencies and temperatures. At the same time, hydrocarbon resin has excellent processing performance, compared with other high-frequency copper-clad laminate resin materials, its molding process is simple, low cost, is considered to be the preferred resin material for the next generation of high-frequency copper-clad laminates, and is known as the most promising high-frequency and high-speed copper-clad laminate material. Hydrocarbon resin copper clad laminate is mainly composed of hydrocarbon resin and low dielectric ceramic powder composite to prepare glue, and then impregnated with glass fiber cloth to prepare prepreg pressed form. The hydrocarbon resin systems commonly used in copper clad laminates include polybutadiene system, polybutadiene (SB, SBS) copolymer system, cycloene copolymer (COC, DCPD) system, SI and SIS copolymer system, EPDM copolymer system, PPO modified polybutadiene system, PPO modified SI and SIS copolymer system, etc. Most of the high-end PCBs manufactured in China use high-performance hydrocarbon substrates developed and manufactured by foreign companies. At present, hydrocarbon resins are monopolized by Sartomer and Kraton Polymers in the United States, Nippon Soda and Asahi-Kase in Japan, and TOPAS in Germany. The performance of hydrocarbon resin copper clad laminate developed by Rogers in the United States is more excellent, and its substrate mainly includes hydrocarbon resin filled ceramics, hydrocarbon resin filled ceramics and glass cloths, among which RO4725JXRTM products have a Dk of 2.64 and a Df of 0.0026 at 10GHz, which belongs to hydrocarbon resin plus ceramics and glass cloth. However, there are only a few commercialized substrates in China, such as the RF and microwave circuit substrate S7136H product developed by Shengyi Technology, which has a Dk of 3.42 and a Df of 0.0030 at 10GHz, which belongs to the category of hydrocarbon resin plus ceramic porcelain and glass cloth.
3.2 Inorganic functional materials
Inorganic functional materials (fillers) for copper clad laminates include silica powder, boron nitride, alumina and titanium dioxide, among which silicon powder is the most widely used powder material. Fillers change the physical and chemical properties of materials through their own physical properties or surface interactions. The use of fillers in the copper clad laminate industry can improve the performance of copper clad laminates, such as the reduction of thermal expansion coefficient, the improvement of flame retardancy, the improvement of thermal conductivity and the mechanical properties of the plate. Conventional copper clad laminates are generally selected to add primary silicon-based powder materials in organic polymer materials such as traditional epoxy resin. With the gradual development of the copper clad laminate industry in the direction of high frequency, high speed and light and thin miniaturization, the copper clad laminate with certain index requirements for dielectric and dielectric loss will select the silicon powder that meets the requirements of particle size, purity and particle size range and is surface modified, and the copper clad laminate of high technical grades such as high-frequency and high-speed and HDI substrates generally adopts modified high-performance spherical silicon powder (usually a powder with a median particle size of less than 3 μm and surface modification).
In practical applications, due to the different preparation principles and paths, the basic properties of spherical silicon powder are also quite different. At present, there are three main technical paths for spherical silicon powder in the market that can meet the mass production conditions, namely, flame melting spherical silicon powder, direct-fire/VMC spherical silicon powder and chemically synthesized spherical silicon powder, and the performance such as particle size, nodularity and unit price increase in turn. In high-speed copper clad laminates, the flame fusion method spherical silicon cannot fully meet the performance requirements of M6 or above high-speed copper clad laminates due to the specific surface area and other index limitations caused by the preparation process, and generally choose to add spherical silicon prepared by direct combustion method/VMC principle or chemical synthesis method; In the SLP and IC substrates, due to the higher technical requirements, the chemical synthesis of spherical silicon with purity and sphericity close to 100% is generally selected. In recent years, Japanese manufacturers have gradually adjusted the focus of products, shrinking the production capacity and R&D investment of flame melting spherical silicon, focusing on spherical silicon such as VMC method. Technical indicators such as nodularity and surface smoothness.
With the rapid development of high-tech such as artificial intelligence, chips, and 5G, copper clad laminates, as the core material of semiconductor manufacturing, are growing rapidly, driving the market demand for raw material silicon powder to increase. In 2021, the size of the mainland silicon powder market reached 2.46 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.9%, and with the continuous breakthrough in production technology, it is expected that the silicon powder market will continue to maintain a growth trend and exceed 5.50 billion yuan by 2025. In addition, in recent years, with the performance upgrade of downstream terminal equipment, the proportion of high-performance spherical silicon powder has been increasing year by year, according to the Prospective Industry Research Institute, by 2023, the proportion of high-performance spherical silicon powder used in the field of copper clad laminates will be close to 47%, and it is expected to account for more than 56% in 2027.
4 Analysis of key companies
4.1 Shengquan Group
The company is a leading enterprise in synthetic resins, and its four major businesses work together. Founded in 1979, the company was formerly known as Diao Zhen Furfural Factory and was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2021. The company has formed two core businesses of new chemical materials and biomass new materials and new energy, and its products cover four major areas of high-performance resins and composite materials, casting materials, electronic chemicals and biomass industries, among which (1) high-performance resins and composite materials are the company's leading industries, and the current production capacity of phenolic resin has reached 648,600 tons/year, and the production capacity scale and technical level rank among the top in the world. Tire rubber and other multi-purpose phenolic resin products, with 10 series of more than 800 varieties; (2) Casting materials are the company's traditional pillar industries, the company's foundry with furan resin production and sales scale ranks first in the world, with furan resin, cold box resin, hot box resin, coatings, curing agents, ceramic filters, heating and insulation risers, smelting materials as the representative of more than 100 kinds of casting auxiliary material products, widely used in automobiles, ships, aircraft, wind power, general machinery, precision instruments and other product castings and high-grade precision export castings production; (3) Electronic chemicals are the company's future growth engine, the company has entered the field of electronic chemicals since 2005, after years of intensive cultivation, has realized the localization of electronic grade phenolic resin, special epoxy resin, market share increased year by year; (4) The company has been involved in the biomass industry since the establishment of the factory in 1979, and the "Shengquan method" biomass refining integration technology developed by the company was selected into the "Green Technology Promotion Catalogue" (2020) of the National Development and Reform Commission. At present, the world's first million-ton "Shengquan method" plant straw refining integration project (phase I) is fully put into operation in Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, which is expected to process 500,000 tons of straw per year to produce a series of green bio-based products such as biomass resin charcoal, hard carbon anode materials, highly active lignin, furfural, pulp, biomethanol, and degradable materials.
The overall performance showed a growth trend, and the volume of electronic chemicals continued to increase. From 2017 to 2023, the company's revenue increased from 5.035 billion yuan to 9.120 billion yuan, with a CAGR of 10.41%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company increased from 477 million yuan to 789 million yuan, with a CAGR of 8.75%. In 2020, due to the significant increase in revenue and profit of the health protection equipment business, the company's revenue and net profit increased by 41.43% and 86.20% year-on-year respectively, and if this business is excluded, the company's other main businesses achieved revenue of 5.939 billion yuan in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 2.15%; In 2021, the revenue of the health protection equipment business was 272 million yuan, and if this business is excluded, the revenue of other main businesses will be 8.415 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 41.68%, and all business segments have achieved great growth. In the segmented business segments, phenolic resin and furan resin are the company's traditional pillar industries, accounting for more than 50% of the company's total revenue in recent years, contributing to the company's main revenue and profit; Benefiting from the localization of the downstream, the market demand for electronic products has increased significantly, and the company's electronic chemicals industry has developed rapidly, and its application fields have gradually expanded to integrated circuits, liquid crystal displays, chip manufacturing, 5G communications and other fields, and the proportion of revenue has increased to 12.98% in 2023; In terms of biomass business, the production line of the "1 million tons/year biomass refining integration (phase I project) project" of Daqing production base has been officially put into full operation in May 23, successfully realizing the upgrading from "process" to "industry".
Electronic resin blooms in many places, opening up new space for growth. The electronic grade resin produced by the company has the characteristics of high insulation reliability, high heat resistance, low dielectric constant, low dielectric loss, low thermal expansion coefficient, etc., and is used in the substrate of copper clad laminate on printed circuit boards, device packaging molding compounds, circuit board inks, etc., and can be widely used in 5G/6G communications, automotive electronics, consumer electronics and other fields. At present, the company's electronic chemical products include electronic grade phenolic resins, special epoxy resins, benzoxazine, bismaleimide resins and other functional polymer materials, among which phenol biphenyl epoxy, crystalline epoxy, DCPD epoxy resin and other special epoxy resins have been landed and commercialized, and the localization of imported products has been completed. Electronic grade phenolic resin continued to maintain a dominant position, and increased the development and application of new products, and continued to increase market share and sales; Significant progress has been made in the field of new maleimide resins, and batch supply has been realized, and a 1000 tons/year maleimide resin project has been launched; High-frequency and high-speed hydrocarbon resins have made significant progress in multiple product fields and launched a 2000 tons/year hydrocarbon resin project; M6/M7/M8 grade 5G special electronic resin (polyphenylene ether PPE/PPO/MPPO) has been certified by end customers and industrial chains at home and abroad, and the project with an annual output of 1,000 tons of functionalized polyphenylene ether will be put into production in the second quarter of 2024, and polyphenylene ether is expected to become one of the main products of the company's electronic chemicals industry in the future. With the development of global markets such as intelligent computing, high-performance computing, and IoT/Internet of Vehicles, the demand for supporting high-end electronic chemicals has maintained continuous growth, and the domestic substitution space is broad, which is expected to drive the rapid growth of the company's electronic materials business.
4.2 Tozai Technology
A leading company in insulating film materials, with a multi-sector layout to drive long-term growth. Tozai Technology was founded in 1994 and listed on the main board of Shanghai in 2011. The company is mainly engaged in the research and development, manufacturing and sales of new chemical materials, based on new insulating materials, focusing on the development of optical film materials, electronic materials, environmental protection flame retardant materials and other products, the products can be widely used in power generation equipment, UHV power transmission and transformation, smart grid, new energy vehicles, rail transportation, consumer electronics, photoelectric display, electrical appliances, communication networks and other fields.
Revenue maintained a growth trend, and the contribution of electronic resins and optical films continued to increase. From 2017 to 2022, the company's revenue increased from 1.734 billion yuan to 3.640 billion yuan, with a CAGR of 15.99%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company increased from 99 million yuan to 415 million yuan, with a CAGR of 33.19%. Among them, in 2021, benefiting from the acceleration of domestic substitution and the company's active adjustment of product structure, the sales volume of optical film and electronic materials increased significantly, driving the revenue to increase by 71.93% year-on-year, and the net profit attributable to the parent company increased by 94.86% year-on-year. In 2023, the sales volume of the company's new energy materials, optical film materials, and electronic materials products will still maintain a growth trend, with a year-on-year increase of 2.66% in revenue, but due to the downward cycle of commodity prices, the company's product prices will be under pressure as a whole, resulting in a year-on-year decline of 20.72% in net profit attributable to the parent company. In the subdivided business segments, insulating materials have always been the company's traditional main business (in 2022, the company adjusted the business classification method, and the functional film in the insulating material is classified as a new energy material), and the company actively adjusted the product structure and continuously increased the sales proportion of differentiated products, the proportion of revenue of optical film products increased from 15.44% in 2017 to 25.74% in 2023, and the proportion of electronic material products increased from 1.34% in 2018 to 22.02% in 2023. Optical film and electronic material products are gradually becoming the company's new performance growth pole.
The performance of electronic resin is excellent, and the release of new production capacity can be expected in the future. The company's main products used in the field of electronic technology and microelectronics technology are electronic-grade resin materials, which are the upstream core materials for the manufacture of printed circuit boards (PCBs). The electronic grade resin material produced by the company has the characteristics of high glass transition temperature, low dielectric constant, low dielectric loss, low expansion coefficient, etc., which can meet the performance requirements of high frequency signal transmission and high-speed information processing, and is one of the three main materials for the production of high-performance copper clad laminates, which can be widely used in many fields such as new generation servers, automotive electronics, communication networks, etc. The company has successively invested in the construction of "annual output of 60,000 tons of special epoxy resin and intermediates project", "annual output of 5,200 tons of high-frequency and high-speed printed circuit board special resin materials industrialization project", "annual output of 160,000 tons of high-performance resin and formaldehyde project", independent research and development of hydrocarbon resin, maleimide resin, active ester resin, benzoxazine resin, special epoxy resin and other electronic grade resin materials, and a number of world-renowned copper clad laminate manufacturers have established stable supply relationships. With the gradual completion and commissioning of related projects, the release of new production capacity of electronic resin is expected to bring greater incremental space for the company.
4.3 Deppon Technology
A small giant of high-end electronic packaging materials, with outstanding growth in multi-field layout. Founded in 2003 and listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in September 2022, the company is a national-level specialized, special and new key "little giant" enterprise specializing in the R&D and industrialization of high-end electronic packaging materials. Since its establishment, the company has been led by integrated circuit packaging material technology, and has gradually extended to the fields of intelligent terminal packaging materials, new energy application materials, high-end equipment application materials, etc., and has formed four major product categories. The company's specific product forms are electronic-grade adhesives and functional film materials, which can realize composite functions such as structural bonding, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, insulation, protection, electromagnetic shielding, etc., and are used in different packaging process links and application scenarios such as wafer processing, chip-scale packaging, power device packaging, board-level packaging, module and system integration packaging, and have been widely used in semiconductors, consumer electronics, power batteries, photovoltaics and other emerging industries.
The performance grew steadily, and new energy materials contributed the main revenue. From 2018 to 2023, the company's revenue increased from 197 million yuan to 932 million yuan, with a CAGR of 36.46%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company increased from -02 million yuan to 103 million yuan. Among them, in 2022, the company achieved revenue of 929 million yuan, a significant increase of 59% year-on-year, mainly due to the company's seizing the opportunity of rapid growth in the power battery industry, expanding production capacity in a timely manner, and the revenue of new energy application materials increased by 121% year-on-year to 590 million yuan; In 2023, the company's revenue will be 932 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.32%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company will be 103 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 16.26%, which is related to the changes in some product structures affected by market competition, industrial chain cost pressure and other factors, but the company's overall revenue is stable and rising, and the company is actively expanding new customers and new application points, and its performance is expected to resume its growth trend. In the segmented business segments, new energy application materials are currently the company's main source of revenue, accounting for more than 60% of revenue in the past two years; In the field of intelligent terminal packaging materials, the proportion of revenue has declined due to the sluggish demand in the downstream consumer field, and is currently around 20%; In the field of integrated circuit packaging materials, the proportion of revenue in the field of destocking and the slow recovery of downstream utilization rate is stable at about 10%.
The introduction of new integrated circuit products has been accelerated, and the resonance of multiple products has driven performance growth. At present, integrated circuit packaging materials have formed a variety of varieties and series of adhesive and film products, such as UV film series, die bonding series, thermal conductivity series, underfill adhesive series, Lid frame bonding materials, etc., and supply Huatian Technology, Tongfu Microelectronics, Changdian Technology, Riyuexin and other world-renowned packaging and testing manufacturers, and high-quality customer resources provide strong support for the company's development. With the semiconductor manufacturing process approaching the physical limit, the application of advanced packaging technology to promote the demand for advanced packaging materials, the company in this industry outbreak and domestic substitution opportunities, through the continuous increase in research and development investment, supplement, enrich product models, each series of products in testing, verification, small batch and other different stages, is expected to bring new increments to the company.
4.4 NOVORAY
The leading enterprise of silicon powder in China, the application of electronic powder is diverse. Founded in 2002, formerly known as Donghai silicon powder, listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in October 2019, the company has been committed to the research and development, manufacturing and sales of inorganic fillers and particle carrier industry products since its establishment, and is a leading high-tech enterprise in the production of silicon powder in China. At present, the company's main products are micron-level and sub-micron-level angular powders processed by advanced grinding technology; Micron-sized spherical inorganic powder processed by flame melting method; submicron-sized spherical particles processed by high-temperature oxidation and liquid-phase methods; A variety of ultrafine particles that have undergone surface treatment, functional particles manufactured by various methods, and slurry products developed to solve particle dispersion. The company's products can be widely used in copper clad laminates for electronic circuits, epoxy plastic molding materials for chip packaging, electrical insulation materials, adhesives, ceramics, coatings and other fields, and are ultimately used in consumer electronics, automotive industry, aerospace, wind power generation, national defense and military industries.
Revenue increased steadily, with spherical silica powder being the main source of revenue. From 2017 to 2022, the company's revenue increased from 211 million yuan to 662 million yuan, with a CAGR of 25.69%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company increased from 42 million yuan to 188 million yuan, with a CAGR of 34.95%. In 2023, the company's revenue will be 712 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.55%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company will be 174 million yuan, a slight decrease of 7.45% year-on-year, mainly related to the increase in R&D expenses, the decrease in foreign exchange gains, the increase in depreciation expenses and other factors, and the net profit attributable to the parent company after deducting non-profits will be 150 million yuan, still a year-on-year increase of 0.21%. In the segmented business segments, spherical silicon powder has gradually become the company's main source of revenue, with the proportion of revenue increasing from 20% in 2017 to more than 50% in 2023; In 2023, the revenue of angular silicon powder will account for about 30%, which is another major source of revenue for the company.
The core technology is independent and controllable, and the products are high-quality and the customer resources are abundant. The company has independently innovated and mastered the core technologies of raw material design, particle design, composite doping, high-temperature spheroidization, particle dispersion, liquid phase synthesis, combustion synthesis, crystalline phase control, surface modification and simulation of advanced functional inorganic non-metallic powder materials, and has successfully broken through the key process technologies such as anti-sticking wall, anti-carbon deposition, anti-sticking and particle size control of electronic grade spherical silicon powder prepared by flame method at high temperature, and the key indicators such as sphericity, nodularity and magnetic foreign body of the product have reached the international leading level. It has broken the monopoly of Japan and other countries on electronic-grade spherical silicon powder products, and realized the import substitution of similar products. Due to the excellent quality, the company's products are well recognized by customers, and the sales market covers Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia and other countries and regions. The company has established cooperative relations with world-class semiconductor plastic molding material manufacturers Sumitomo Electric, Hitachi Chemical, Panasonic Electric, KCC Group, Huawei Electronics, the world's top ten copper clad laminate companies Kingboard Group, Shengyi Technology, Nanya Group, Lianmao Group, Jinan Guoji, Taiyi Technology, South Korea Doosan Group and other enterprises, and has become a qualified material supplier for these enterprises.
(This article is for informational purposes only and does not represent any investment advice from us.) To use the information, please refer to the original report. ）
Selected report source: [Future Think Tank]. Future Think Tank - Official Website