Dublin-based Research and Markets has added "Global and Chinese IC Advanced Packaging Industry Report, 2013-2014" to their resources.

Typically, an independent packaging and testing vendor is known as OSAT. In 1997, the OSAT industry scale was no more than $5.1 billion or so, making up 19.6 per cent of the semiconductor industry, in sharp contrast to the market size of $23.6 billion in 2011, a figure that occupied 30 per cent of the semiconductor industry. During 2011 to 2013, the packaging and testing industry saw an AAGR of less than five per cent for three consecutive years, which mainly resulted from the fact the advanced packaging technologies developed from 2005 to 2010 period began to be popularised, thus leading to a dramatic decline in unit prices, these packaging technologies include FC-BGA, WLCSP, QFN, SiP and PoP, etc.?

At present, both mobile phones and computers are developing towards ultra-thin, multi-core and high frequency while memory industry is targeted at ultra bandwidth, which would prompt the packaging and testing market to satisfy the market demand with the updated technologies. Since 2014, a number of new technologies have been applied, which would bring with it a more than six per cent growth in packaging and testing industry.

These technologies, including MLP PoP, Cu Bol, FC-CSP, FOWLP, Embedded Component (Trace) Substrate and 2.5D, are mainly used in smartphones and ultra-thin computers, with a robust market demand. Meanwhile, TSV is expected to be applied from the memory industry. On the other hand, some major IDM vendors like Panasonic and Renesas Electronics have retreated from packaging business. It is projected that in 2014 the output value of OSAT industry will grow by 8.4 per cent to $27.2 billion, and advanced packaging industry probably by 10 per cent to $18.2 billion.?

In terms of industry, a type of middle-end enterprises has emerged between Foundry or IDM and OSAT since 2008. In the era of FC packaging, these enterprises mainly provide RDL, wafer bumping, and wafer level test. But in the age of 2.5D and 3D, their scope of business has been greatly expanded, primarily including micro bumping, thin and reveal, interposer, via middle, WL-carrier assembly, etc.?

In 2014, the biggest event that happened to the packaging industry was nothing but the attempt of Temasek to sell STATS ChipPAC. Owned by the Government of Singapore, STATS ChipPAC is less competitive, especially when facing the competition from the Taiwanese rivals. Although it has state-of-the-art technologies, yet the company depends heavily on its key accounts, including Infineon, Apple Inc., Qualcomm and Broadcom, etc. However, Infineon has gradually withdrawn from mobile phone market while Apple Inc. and Qualcomm have diversified supply chain risks, cutting down on the orders of STATS ChipPAC, which led to a fall in revenue for four consecutive years.?

In addition, a second major event was the fact that SPIL had won massive orders from Qualcomm, MTK as well as Huawei's Hisilicon, which would considerably increase SPIL's revenue. In H1 2014, SPIL harvested a substantial growth of 27 per cent in revenue, making it the world's number one by operating margin. In 2014, the company is expected to surpass Amkor as the global second.??

By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved