The market size of PCB exposure equipment is nearly 10 billion
PCB exposure equipment is a device that transfers pre-prepared circuit image information to copper substrates through photolithography technology. It is a comprehensive product integrating electrical automation, microelectronic control, mechanical design, optoelectronics, vacuum sealing, CCD alignment and other application technologies . Exposure equipment is the concentrated carrier of lithography technology and the most important process link in lithography technology. It determines the quality of the circuit diagram of PCB products and the overall performance of products. It is one of the key equipment in PCB manufacturing.
China is the world’s largest PCB production base. Since 2006, the output and value of PCB have ranked first in the world. It is also the largest consumer market for PCB exposure equipment. The current market size accounts for more than 50% of the world. Since the 1990s, global PCB production capacity has gradually shifted to mainland China, and a relatively complete PCB industrial cluster has gradually formed in mainland China, providing a good industrial soil for the development of PCB exposure equipment.
Demand for circuit layer exposure is strong
In the PCB manufacturing process, PCB exposure equipment is required for the inner layer image, outer layer image and solder mask. Therefore, according to PCB manufacturing steps, exposure equipment can be divided into exposure equipment for circuit layers and exposure equipment for solder mask layers.
The circuit layer is the basic core layer of the PCB, responsible for connecting and transmitting electrical signals between electronic components. In the PCB processing process, the processing accuracy and quality of the circuit layer directly affect the performance and reliability of the entire circuit board. In most PCB designs, the number of circuit layers is generally large, such as multilayer PCBs, each board contains multiple electronic components that need to be connected. Therefore, the demand for circuit layer exposure equipment is relatively large.
Solder mask effectively improves PCB stability
In the PCB manufacturing process, the solder mask is a protective layer covering the surface of the circuit board. It can protect the circuit copper foil from the external environment and play a role in fixing components and circuit connections. PCB solder mask exposure equipment plays a key role in the PCB manufacturing process, which ensures the quality and accuracy of the solder mask on the surface of the circuit board, thereby improving the stability and reliability of the PCB.
The market prospect of PCB exposure equipment is promising
Printed circuit boards are key interconnects for assembling electronic components. They not only provide electrical connections for electronic components, but also carry business functions such as digital and analog signal transmission, power supply, and radio frequency microwave signal transmission and reception of electronic equipment. Prismark predicts that in the future, 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, cloud servers, storage devices, automotive electronics, etc. will become new directions driving the growth of PCB demand, and will continue to upgrade to high-end technologies.
The market demand for PCB exposure equipment mainly comes from the equipment investment expenditure of downstream PCB companies, so the fixed assets and construction in progress of downstream PCB companies can reflect the market demand potential of PCB exposure equipment to a large extent.
Overall, the capacity expansion of China’s PCB manufacturing industry has increased significantly since 2018, and the demand for upstream PCB exposure equipment has also increased accordingly. In the future, driven by the rapid development of 5G commercial, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and other fields, it will drive the further growth of the PCB exposure equipment industry.
Market size forecast of PCB exposure equipment industry
The development of China’s PCB exposure equipment industry is closely related to the expansion of downstream PCB manufacturing enterprises. The downstream expansion plan will be transmitted to the upstream industry along the industrial chain, thereby driving the expansion of the market size of the PCB exposure equipment industry. With the birth and gradual penetration of new-generation communication technologies such as 5G, the electronic information industry has ushered in a booming trend. Since 2018, most PCB manufacturing companies have expanded production. The top 10 PCB manufacturing companies in 2018-2022 have fixed assets The average compound growth rate is as high as 17.65%.
Prismark predicts that in the future, 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, cloud servers, storage devices, automotive electronics, etc. will become new directions driving the growth of PCB demand. It is expected that the PCB manufacturing industry will still have relatively good market growth prospects in the future. However, due to the overall pressure on the global economy in recent years, the recovery of the global consumer side has been relatively weak, which has hindered the sales of important downstream applications of PCB products such as consumer electronics. The growth rate of market size decreased slightly.
According to the PCB exposure equipment market size data released by Uresearch and the outlook on the prospects of the PCB manufacturing industry, it is estimated that the compound growth rate of the market size of China’s PCB exposure equipment industry will be about 12% from 2023 to 2027. In 2027, the market size of China’s PCB exposure equipment industry will be reached 17.3 billion RMB.
