Printed Circuit Board (PCB for short) is one of the vital components in the electronics industry. Whether in everyday‑use mobile phones, automobiles, or communication equipment and military weapon systems, PCBs serve as indispensable core parts. Within complete electronic devices, PCBs support electronic components and chips, realize inter‑layer interconnection and electrical conduction, prevent solder bridging, and facilitate maintenance identification. Their design and manufacturing quality exert a direct impact on the quality and cost of end‑products, and may even determine success or failure in commercial competition.

All the functions, performance stability and reliability of printed boards are closely bound up with chemicals used in PCB manufacturing. Continuous innovation in PCB electronic chemicals has gone hand‑in‑hand with the entire technical development history of PCB fabrication. It can be said that without chemicals of diverse applications, it would be impossible to produce printed boards, let alone high‑end multi‑layer boards, HDI boards, chip carriers and rigid‑flex boards for sophisticated high‑tech electronic devices.

On the other hand, the development trend of PCB chemicals is affected by multiple factors including market demands of PCB manufacturers, production equipment, manufacturing processes, as well as policies and regulations. Clarifying these factors helps identify the opportunities and challenges facing PCB electronic chemicals.

Market Analysis of the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Industry at Home and Abroad

After hitting rock bottom amid the European debt crisis and global economic downturn in 2012, the global PCB industry rebounded in 2013 driven by recovering consumer markets. Over the past decade, global PCB production has kept shifting toward Asia, particularly mainland China, which has rapidly grown into a major manufacturer of electronic products and PCBs. According to Prismark forecasts, the global PCB industry will maintain steady growth in the future. As the world’s largest‑output and fastest‑growing PCB manufacturing base, China constitutes the primary driving force for global PCB industry expansion. Projections indicate that China’s PCB sector will sustain rapid growth in the coming years, with its global market standing further enhanced. From 2012 to 2017, China’s PCB output value achieved a compound annual growth rate of 6.0 %, reaching a total output value of USD 28.972 billion and accounting for 44.13 % of global PCB output value.

Rapid and steady growth in downstream PCB output has created favorable conditions for the development of the PCB electronic chemicals industry. Against the backdrop of the information age, data‑processing and communication devices impose higher and more diversified requirements on PCBs, pushing product grades upward. This in turn raises higher standards for PCB chemicals. Driven by the downstream electronic product trend toward miniaturization, light‑weighting and thin‑profile design, PCBs are evolving toward high precision, high integration and slim form factors. HDI boards, flexible boards, HDI/BUM substrates and IC packaging substrates (BGA, CSP) enjoy robust growth momentum. Between 2014 and 2018, HDI boards posted a compound annual growth rate of 5.8 %, emerging as a major growth engine for the PCB industry.

Conventional multi‑layer boards and HDI boards are mature‑stage products with well‑established processes and relatively high added value, and are the mainstream offerings of most leading PCB manufacturers. Flexible boards, especially high‑density flexible boards and rigid‑flex boards, remain in the growth stage. Mass‑volume production has not yet been widely realized due to immature technologies. Nevertheless, flexible boards boast properties better suited to digital products than rigid boards, promising strong growth potential and representing a key development direction for major manufacturers.

Many performance improvements and specification upgrades for printed boards are accomplished by modifying chemical formulations and processes. Ongoing advancement of PCBs and increasingly stringent requirements bring both opportunities and challenges to upstream PCB electronic chemical suppliers. Manufacturers that fail to capture opportunities in HDI‑related chemicals may turn to flexible‑board‑oriented chemicals as an alternative.

Development History of Domestic PCB Chemicals

PCB fabrication involves dozens of dry‑process and wet‑process procedures from material preparation to final packaging. It features long workflows, complicated control points and numerous quality‑influencing factors, rendering PCB manufacturers highly technically dependent on chemical solution suppliers. Despite the rapid expansion of China’s electronic chemicals market, high‑end segments have long been monopolized by foreign brands.

Foreign players entered the industry early and accumulated abundant technical experience. Their products have passed long‑term validation by end‑customers with proven stability and reliability, supported by strong brand recognition. Equipped with powerful R&D teams and high‑end analytical instruments, foreign enterprises even steer global trends in PCB chemical processes. Consequently, the high‑end market for PCB manufacturing chemicals has long been dominated by brands from Europe, America, Japan and Chinese Taiwan.

Domestic chemical suppliers started late. They initially supplied auxiliary chemicals such as tank cleaners, defoamers, etchants, stripping agents and tin‑stripping agents, mainly serving small‑and‑medium‑sized PCB factories. For core chemicals such as electroless copper plating solutions, most domestic players merely acted as agents selling foreign brands.

After years of technical accumulation, domestic chemical suppliers have made substantial progress. Formulations for special‑purpose PCB chemicals have been continuously optimized. Some domestic products have gained access to large‑scale PCB enterprises including foreign‑invested factories. Product portfolios have expanded from auxiliary consumables to high‑reliability chemicals such as brown oxidation agents, micro‑roughening agents, electroless copper plating solutions, electroplating solutions, OSP chemicals and electroless nickel‑immersion gold solutions, which are now widely adopted by numerous PCB manufacturers for their cost‑performance advantages.

Domestic suppliers have also attached greater importance to R&D and laboratory infrastructure. Some enterprises have deployed pilot‑scale production equipment and high‑end analytical instruments including large‑scale electron microscopes. Many have built R&D centers and recruited high‑caliber professionals. Intellectual property development has also been prioritized, with multiple enterprises holding independent patents. For instance, Guanghua Technology Group runs in‑house R&D laboratories as well as a post‑doctoral workstation to attract technical talents and advance new‑product R&D. Thanks to joint efforts by domestic chemical suppliers in recent years, the long‑standing foreign monopoly over most special‑purpose PCB chemicals has gradually been broken.

Market Distribution of PCB Chemicals

PCB chemical solutions can be categorized according to manufacturing procedures, with respective market shares shown in the table below：

The current market share of domestic suppliers within the overall PCB chemical market is presented as follows.

Green‑Eco‑Friendly Products as the Future Trend; Innovation as the Path to Survival and Growth

PCB chemical solutions are shifting progressively from non‑eco‑friendly types toward environmentally‑friendly alternatives. In June of that year, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued the heaviest fine in its history: nineteen enterprises were fined or ordered to pay supplementary pollutant discharge fees totaling RMB 410 million for defective desulfurization facilities. Against the background of pursuing both economic growth and environmental protection, environmental regulations have grown increasingly stringent. Governments, industry participants, PCB manufacturers and chemical suppliers all attach great importance to environmental issues. Undoubtedly, environmental protection constitutes the most critical topic for the PCB industry and will remain a core focus for a long time to come. Enterprises that take the lead in developing eco‑friendly chemical solutions will secure competitive advantages. Addressing environmental challenges is a primary task and an indispensable responsibility for chemical suppliers.

Eco‑friendly chemical solutions generate less waste gas, wastewater and solid waste, feature easier waste treatment, improve workplace conditions and better safeguard workers’ health. Remarkable progress has been achieved in environmental‑protection‑oriented technologies in recent years. For hole metallization, for example, selective organic conductive film direct‑plating technologies developed by companies such as Atotech and Dongshuo Technology have gained growing recognition and adoption. This hole‑metallization process produces no formaldehyde emissions, greatly improving working conditions. It generates no complexed wastewater, simplifies waste treatment, drastically cuts water and power consumption and lowers operating costs. Its horizontal‑processing design facilitates automation and labor‑saving production. Boasting these merits, polymer conductive‑film direct‑plating technology has been accepted and widely deployed across the market.

Take Qiandeng in Kunshan as an example. Before 2010, only Nanjing Elcoteq operated one horizontal polymer conductive‑film direct‑plating line in the Yangtze River Delta, and no such lines existed in Qiandeng, Kunshan. In 2011, Kunshan Xinli Electronics introduced Qiandeng’s first horizontal polymer conductive‑film direct‑plating line. In 2012, Kunshan Jinpeng and Kunshan General Component Factory each put one such line into operation. In 2013, four additional enterprises including Kunshan Huicheng Electronics, Kunshan Hongyuntong and Guangqian launched new lines. By 2014, more than 100 manufacturers had adopted polymer conductive‑film direct‑plating processes. A rising number of environmentally‑conscious PCB factories have implemented direct‑plating workflows, reflecting vigorous industry momentum and delivering positive demonstration effects for environmental protection.

New Challenges and Opportunities for Domestic PCB Chemical Suppliers

China has already become the world’s largest PCB‑producing country. Improved capabilities of domestic consumer‑electronics manufacturers (for mobile phones, computers and other products) have further fueled the expansion of China’s PCB industry. Nevertheless, the high‑end chemical market for HDI PCB production remains largely occupied by brands from Europe, America, Japan and Chinese Taiwan. The overall technical competence of domestic PCB chemical producers still lags behind global advanced standards. Domestic enterprises have yet to build solid brand recognition and hold relatively low market shares. Despite heavy R&D investment, many domestic products have not achieved large‑scale adoption by customers. Consequently, domestic suppliers are trapped in price competition, scrambling for orders from mid‑ and low‑end clients.

Moreover, the technical barriers to chemical manufacturing are relatively low, so domestic chemicals are widely used by mid‑ and low‑end customers. This has spurred the mushrooming of new domestic chemical suppliers, with statistics showing at least 100‑200 active players in China. Fierce competition among numerous suppliers adds substantial operational pressure on enterprises investing in high‑end‑product R&D.

Insiders within the PCB industry have recognized this situation and are calling for China’s transformation from a manufacturing giant to a technological powerhouse. Such transformation first requires innovations in PCB‑related chemicals, equipment and processes. Chemicals for printed‑board manufacturing have been listed by the Chinese government as key high‑tech areas for support. To upgrade domestic technical capabilities and create a sound development environment for chemical suppliers, governmental support should be complemented by practical collaborative efforts from PCB manufacturers, which enables mutual technological improvement and holds the key to overall industrial upgrading. Future technical innovations in PCB manufacturing represent inevitable technical challenges that the industry must tackle. Innovations in PCB manufacturing call for joint participation and concerted progress from PCB chemical suppliers, equipment vendors and PCB manufacturers — a long‑term undertaking.

Opportunities Brought by Product Technical Upgrading and Innovation

PCB product design keeps moving toward miniaturization, light‑weighting, thin‑profile and fine‑line features. Manufacturing demands for finer circuit patterns, thinner substrates and higher reliability keep raising technical thresholds for chemical solutions. With existing domestic production capacities and maturing application technologies, suppliers actively conducting R&D for high‑end HDI‑oriented chemicals face promising prospects. In HDI‑related technologies, opportunities lie in micro‑etchants with ultra‑low etching capacity (0.5 μm), etchants for fine circuits below 50 μm, horizontal electroless copper plating for thin boards, VCP blind‑hole electroplating, hole‑filling electroplating, and eco‑friendly direct‑plating chemicals. Domestic suppliers that catch up with international benchmarks in process technologies will achieve sound development in the future.

To sum up, market trends favor chemical solutions that are eco‑friendly, compatible with shorter workflows, adaptable to automated production, capable of lowering PCB manufacturers’ production costs and improving product yield. Faced with intertwined opportunities and challenges, enterprises that strengthen product development capabilities, rapidly respond to market demands and follow industrial trends will emerge as final winners.