According to industry sources, in the notebook processor supply chain, ABF carrier boards will be one of the specific parts where shortages will intensify in 2022, which may lead to tight supply of notebook processors and affect notebook shipments .
According to the "Electronic Times" report, ABF carrier boards have been in short supply for a long time. Manufacturers will give priority to providing production capacity support to major suppliers of high-end HPC and server chips using advanced packaging processes, squeezing the supply of notebook processors. .
According to market research agency Digitimes Research, as the proportion of ABF carrier boards shipped in server processors will increase significantly, the supply gap for ABF carrier boards for notebook processors may expand to 5-15% by 2022. .
According to research firm Aletheia Capital, the shipment rate of ABF carrier boards in server applications will increase from 15% in 2021 to 25% in 2022, and further increase to more than 30% in 2023-2025. , the shipment rate of ABF carrier boards for notebook and PC applications will drop from 44% in 2021 to 27% in 2025.
Industry insiders say that server chips using advanced manufacturing and packaging processes will significantly increase the number of layers, area size and circuit density of ABF carrier boards. The area of ??the ABF carrier board used to handle the new server CPU platform will be at least 20% larger than the current processor, and the number of layers will increase by 2-4 layers.
At the same time, specification upgrades will affect the yield rate of ABF carrier board manufacturing. The chip packaging technology currently used by packaging plants has put greater pressure on the yield rate of carrier board manufacturers. Manufacturers have to deal with new servers. ABF carrier boards designed for HPC chips usually have a yield rate of only 50% at the beginning.
The source said that the IC carrier board manufacturer's ABF carrier board production capacity has been booked by major suppliers of high-end HPC and server chips in 2022 and beyond, and meeting the needs of suppliers is their top priority next year. Task.
In view of this, sources pointed out that ABF carrier board shipments for notebook processors will be a lower priority among carrier board manufacturers, especially considering that the notebook market outlook remains uncertain , the ABF carrier board area of ??notebook computer processor is small, and it is difficult to ensure high capacity utilization.