Current Status of Thermal Interface Material Industry

      1.1 Thermal interface material output and market share   

      According to BCC Research data (see Figure 2), in 2015, the global thermal interface material market was worth 764 million U.S. dollars, and the global thermal interface material market is expected to reach 1.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, with an annual growth rate of 7.4% from 2015 to 2020. 

      Specific to product categories, traditional polymer-based thermal interface materials account for nearly 90% of all products, while phase change thermal interface materials and metal-based thermal interface materials account for a relatively small proportion, but their share is gradually expanding.

      1.2 Demand for main application areas of thermal interface materials   

      In 2015, the global thermal management market scale was USD 11,336.9 million, and the estimated market size of thermal management in 2020 was USD 15,944 million, with an annual growth rate of 7.1%. 

      1.3 Application of thermal interface materials in communications and other fields   

      The application market share of thermal interface materials develops with the development of various terminal fields. The fields represented by communication network (5G), automotive electronics (new energy), artificial intelligence, LED, etc. have huge potential for future development, which will be driven accordingly. The market for thermal interface materials is growing. One is the large-scale application in the communications industry, and the 5G era will bring huge incremental demand. As the power of communication equipment continues to increase, the amount of heat is also rising rapidly. Thermally conductive materials can effectively improve the reliability of equipment, so it has a wide range of applications in the field of communications. In recent years, driven by the investment of telecom operators, the communications equipment industry still maintains a relatively rapid development speed. In the 5G era, the amount of base station investment and the number of base stations will increase rapidly, and the demand for program-controlled switches and mobile communication base station equipment will increase rapidly. The second is to support IoT applications in the 5G era. In addition to mobile phones and computers, 5G terminals have also expanded to automobiles, household appliances, smart wearables, industrial equipment, etc. The abundance of terminal equipment will also directly drive the demand for thermally conductive materials and devices, which is beneficial Thermal conductive material industry. The third is the catalysis of 5G in the communication equipment manufacturing industry, which will bring huge demand for products such as thermal conductive materials and EMI shielding materials. Companies with deep technical accumulation will share the dividends of industry development.

      1.4 Analysis of China's Thermal Interface Material Market   

      In 2014, China's thermal conductivity material market accounted for approximately 20% of the global market share. It is conservatively estimated that China's global thermal conductivity market share in 2020 will be close to 25%. Thermal interface materials belong to a market segment in which American and European companies have a monopoly position in the international and domestic mid-to-high-end markets. The modern electronics industry has developed abroad, so related basic materials vendors appeared earlier than China. Due to the lack of core technology in my country's local companies in the early days, the main high-end thermal conductive material production substrates still need to be provided by foreign manufacturers, and there is still a certain gap between product performance indicators and R&D accumulation and European and American companies. 

      Compared with well-known foreign thermal interface material manufacturers, such as Shin-Etsu Japan, Dow Corning, Germany Henkel, and Gumei, the performance of thermal interface material manufacturers in my country is poor and cannot meet the requirements for high-end chip packaging. Require. The main problem is that the raw materials (such as organic silicon, alumina, aluminum, and aluminum nitride) for the production of thermal interface materials in my country are not pure enough, and the level of thermal interface material composite technology needs to be improved. In recent years, some domestic listed companies focusing on thermal interface materials have emerged, and the entire industry is ushering in a period of good historical opportunities. With the technological advancement of domestic thermal conductive material companies, domestic thermal conductive materials have gradually equalized or even surpassed some imported materials in terms of quality, and they have obvious advantages in cost. If we can seize opportunities in emerging industries and increase our research and development efforts, we will certainly shorten the gap with leading international companies.