Lessons from 2011

摘要

A Cloudy Global economic forecast is causing uncertainty among many corporations, even those in the electronics industry. While last year's worries were caused by natural disasters, 2012 fears are manmade. 2011 was a year of natural disasters with countless lives lost and two major shocks to the electronics industry supply chain. Japan's earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster shuttered some materials, equipment, silicon wafer, wafer fab, assembly operations, and final electronic product plants. It also exposed weaknesses in the IC package infrastructure, damaging companies with virtual monopolies that supply solder mask and resin used in IC package substrate production. One of the weakest links in the supply chain proved to be the supply of Bismaleimide Triazine (BT) resin used in IC package substrates. Mitsubishi Gas Chemical, the world's largest supplier of BT resin, saw its plants in Iwate Prefecture impacted by the March 11 disaster. Some companies had qualified Hitachi Chemical's E679, but supply of this material was also impacted by the disaster. Companies scrambled to qualify suppliers from other regions.