Substrate ABF another that joins the shortage of raw materials

If we no longer had enough with the shortage of some components, now it is the turn of the ABF substrate another that joins the shortage of raw materials

Following AT&S statements in June about such a shortage, today we can confirm that such a shortage could last until 2026.

Unimicron, one of the world’s largest PCB manufacturers, raised these concerns at a conference in Asia. The company has 14 production sites in China and Taiwan, two of them also in Geldern on the Lower Rhine in Germany.

As they explain, due to the current situation experienced by all manufacturers, there will be a shortage of at least 20 percent in the next year, in 2023 this could be reduced slowly. But Unimicron doesn’t expect things to return to total normalcy before 2026.

High-end printed circuit boards, PCBs and IC substrates, more specifically ABF substrates, are required for the manufacturing of processors and graphics cards among many others.

Where combined these are needed for a very large market ranging from home PCs, business PCs and high performance data centers, but also used for 5G, automotive and AI.

In the following image extracted from the computerbase medium, we can see how the AT&S chart yields an exponential increase in the demand for the ABF substrate. Something that many manufacturers have put to work and this manufacturer is investing 1.7 billion euros in new factories to meet this demand.