In PLUS 3/2023, Dr. Hayao Nakahara began with the column 'Report from America'. He ventures a comprehensive survey of PCB production in North America and undertakes extensive research. This issue continues the fascinating report from America with a wealth of data.
Dr. Hayao NakaharaFiveyearsago, during the IPC Exposition in San Diego, a representative from Taiyo Ink told the author that the company supplies about 350 tons of liquid photo-imageable solder resist (PSR) to the North American market per year, and that this volume accounts for about 90% of the market. Recently, the author was told by another Taiyo Ink representative that PSR shipments in 2021 will be about 350 tons. This is no change from five years ago.
Roughly speaking, 1 kg of PSR covers 7.5m2 or 15m2 of board area. If this is true, the panel area processed in North America has remained the same in recent years.
This means that the monetary growth of PCB production has remained the same. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to prove this statement on the basis of IPC B/B figures.
Five years ago, the author made an interesting comparison, which can be seen in Table 5.
Since 2017, when Table 5 was created, China's SSB capacity dropped to less than 50,000,000m2 per year. DSB capacity increased by 15-20%, but MLB capacity increased by 30%. The number of laser drilling machines in China today is almost 6,000 units.
The common growth recipe of successful PCB manufacturers is 'capacity expansion', either through organic investment or clever acquisitions. Technology is important, but if a manufacturer is not dominant with it, it is easily copied, and the manufacturer can be pushed to the wall by latecomers who have mastered the technology and offer lower prices.
It is estimated that 40% of the printed circuit boards manufactured in North America are used in the defense/aerospace sector(Table 6).
Of course, the use of PCBs for other applications is much greater than the figures in Table 6. The difference between the figures and the actual figures is due to imports.
|
North America |
China |
||
|
Employment in the printed circuit board production sector |
18.400 |
240.000 |
|
|
Printed circuit board production in 2017 |
2,970 million $ |
31,000 million $ |
|
|
Annual production capacity (m2) |
SS |
240.000m2 |
60 millionm2 |
|
DS |
900.000m2 |
70 millionm2 |
|
|
ML |
2 millionm2 |
150 millionm2 |
|
|
Flex |
275.000m2 |
55 millionm2 |
|
|
Consumption of photostructurable solder resists (LPI) |
350 t |
28.6000 t |
|
|
Number of mechanical drilling machines |
1.580 |
26.000 |
|
|
Number of laser drilling machines |
132 |
4.000 |
|
|
Average number of layers |
12 |
5 |
|
|
Number of PCBs per batch |
7 |
70-100 |
|
Source: N. T. Information Ltd.
|
Application area |
Quantity in million $ |
Share (%) |
|
Military/aerospace |
1.250,0 |
39,2 |
|
Computers/peripherals |
450,0 |
14,1 |
|
Telecommunications |
400,0 |
12,5 |
|
Industry |
380,0 |
11,9 |
|
Instruments/Medicine |
360,0 |
11,3 |
|
Automotive industry |
250,0 |
7,8 |
|
Office/business sector |
50,0 |
1,6 |
|
Consumer |
50,0 |
1,6 |
|
total |
3.190,0 |
100,0 |
Source: N. T. Information Ltd
|
Manufacturer (circa 1995) |
Business transfer (2000) |
Current (2005-2016) |
||
|
IBM |
→ |
EIT |
→ |
i3 (disappeared in 2019) |
|
AT&T |
→ |
Viasystems |
→ |
Closed |
|
Hadco |
→ |
Sanmina-SCI |
→ |
Sanmina |
|
DEC |
→ |
Viasystems |
→ |
Closed |
|
Diceon |
→ |
Sanmina-SCI |
→ |
Sanmina |
|
Photocircuits |
→ |
Venture |
→ |
Closed |
|
H-P |
→ |
Closed |
→ |
Multek (Germany) |
|
Zycon |
→ |
Hadco/Sanmina |
→ |
Closed (Sanmina) |
|
TYCO |
→ |
TTM |
→ |
TTM* |
|
ACI |
→ |
Honeywell |
→ |
TTM* |
|
Circo Craft |
→ |
Viasystems |
→ |
Closed |
|
Unisys |
→ |
Closed |
→ |
Closed |
|
Sigma Circuit |
→ |
Tyco |
→ |
TTM* |
|
Tektronix |
→ |
Merix |
→ |
Viasystems-TTM |
|
Bureau of Eng |
→ |
Closed |
→ |
Closed |
|
Continetal |
→ |
Hadco/Sanmina |
→ |
Closed |
|
ACD Litton |
→ |
Closed |
→ |
Closed |
|
Universal |
→ |
Universal |
→ |
Advanced Circuits |
|
Altron |
→ |
Hadco/sanmina |
→ |
Closed |
|
Rockwell Int'l |
→ |
Rockwell Collins |
→ |
Closed |
|
Lika/tandy |
→ |
Closed |
→ |
Closed |
|
Circuit-Wise |
→ |
Closed |
→ |
Closed |
|
GE |
→ |
Closed |
→ |
Closed |
|
TI |
→ |
→ |
Closed |
|
|
Aero Scientific |
→ |
Korea Circuit Am |
→ |
Summit Interconnet |
|
AMP-AKZO |
→ |
Closed |
→ |
Closed |
|
Cray Research |
→ |
ACI/Honeywell |
→ |
TTM ACI |
|
Automata |
→ |
DDi |
→ |
Viasystems-TTM |
|
Parlex |
→ |
Johnson Electric |
→ |
Johnson Electric |
|
Honeywell |
→ |
Honeywell/ACI |
→ |
TTM ACI (WI) |
Source: N. T. Information Ltd.
*Including part of Viasytems-Merix, Tyco and DDi formed today's TTM Technologies.
|
Rank |
Manufacturer |
1989 |
Rank |
Manufacturer rank |
2000 |
Rank |
Manufacturer rank |
2002 |
||
|
1 |
IBM* |
415 |
1 |
Sanmina-SCI |
1.500 |
1 |
Viasystems |
430 |
||
|
2 |
AT&T* |
240 |
2 |
Viasystems |
1.250 |
2 |
Sanmina-SCI |
400 |
||
|
3 |
Hadco |
152 |
3 |
Multek |
780 |
3 |
Multek |
380 |
||
|
4 |
DEC* |
125 |
4 |
Tyco PCB |
550 |
4 |
Tyco PCB |
335 |
||
|
5 |
Diceon |
125 |
5 |
DDi |
450 |
5 |
Photocircuits |
280 |
||
|
6 |
Photocircuits |
122 |
6 |
IBM* |
450 |
6 |
DDi |
220 |
||
|
7 |
H-Packard* |
110 |
7 |
Photocircuits |
403 |
7 |
MMM-3M |
200 |
||
|
8 |
Zycon |
85 |
8 |
Honeywell ACI |
360 |
8 |
EIT |
183 |
||
|
9 |
Tyco |
82 |
9 |
MMM-3M |
250 |
9 |
Innovex |
131 |
||
|
10 |
ACI |
75 |
10 |
Teradyne |
210 |
10 |
M-Flex |
123 |
||
|
11 |
Circo Craft |
74 |
11 |
TTM |
203 |
11 |
Merix |
90 |
||
|
12 |
Unisys* |
70 |
12 |
Merix |
195 |
12 |
Parlex |
89 |
||
|
13 |
Sigma Circuits |
65 |
13 |
Innovex |
140 |
13 |
TTM |
87 |
||
|
14 |
Tektronix* |
64 |
14 |
Compeq Int'l |
130 |
14 |
Honeywell ACI |
87 |
||
|
15 |
Bureau of Eng |
63 |
15 |
ACD Litton |
96 |
15 |
Teradyne |
77 |
||
|
16 |
Continental AZ |
55 |
16 |
Parlex |
90 |
16 |
Sheldahl |
65 |
||
|
17 |
ACD Litton |
55 |
17 |
Toppan Elect. |
85 |
17 |
Ambitech |
52 |
||
|
18 |
Universal |
53 |
18 |
Sheldahl |
85 |
18 |
Compeq Int'l |
47 |
||
|
19 |
Altron |
52 |
19 |
Circuit Systems |
77 |
19 |
Coretec |
47 |
||
|
20 |
Rockwell Int'l* |
48 |
20 |
Circuit-Wise |
75 |
20 |
Northrup Gram. |
46 |
||
|
21 |
Lika/Tandy* |
44 |
21 |
The Bureau |
74 |
21 |
Electropac |
43 |
||
|
22 |
Circuit-Wise |
42 |
22 |
S. Bay Circuits |
64 |
22 |
S.Bay Circuits |
38 |
||
|
23 |
GE* |
40 |
23 |
M-Wave |
57 |
23 |
Amitron Corp |
36 |
||
|
24 |
TI* |
38 |
24 |
Int'l Flex Tech |
55 |
24 |
Circuit-Wise |
32 |
||
|
25 |
Aero Scientific |
38 |
25 |
Coretec |
50 |
25 |
Westak |
31 |
||
|
26 |
AMP-AKZO |
38 |
26 |
Pycon S. Clara |
50 |
26 |
Toppan Elect. |
31 |
||
|
27 |
Cray Research* |
35 |
27 |
Westak |
48 |
27 |
Holaday Circuit |
28 |
||
|
28 |
Automata |
32 |
28 |
M-Flex |
47 |
28 |
Marcel Elect. |
28 |
||
|
29 |
Parlex |
29 |
29 |
Electropac |
45 |
29 |
Advanced Ckts |
27 |
||
|
30 |
Honeywell* |
28 |
30 |
Carolina Circuits |
45 |
30 |
Minco Products |
25 |
||
|
Top 30 Total |
2494 |
Top 30 Total |
7.914 |
Top 30 Total |
3688 |
|||||
|
Overseas production |
100 |
Overseas production |
1387 |
Production overseas |
1010 |
|||||
|
Domestic production |
2394 |
Domestic production |
6527 |
Domestic production |
2678 |
|||||
|
Increase since 1989 |
12% |
|||||||||
|
Down from 2000 |
-59% |
|||||||||
(N.T. Information Ltd, March, 2003. Revised 2022)
Note:
Manufacturers marked with an asterisk (*) are internal.
Manufacturers marked in red have disappeared or merged.
Companies marked in grey have either closed or changed their name.
Quo Vadis?
And so it continues. At least 50 more companies have closed or changed hands. It is very difficult to keep track of the changes. Where is North America's PCB industry heading? Can the US government help? -Translation: mh-
