Dry film photoresist technology has high technical barriers and my country’s demand is highly dependent on foreign countries.

PCB photoresist is a type of photoresist that is used in PCB (printed circuit board) manufacturing. The products mainly include dry film photoresist, wet film photoresist, and photoimaging solder mask ink. Compared with semiconductor photoresist and panel photoresist, PCB photoresist has lower technical barriers. Among its three subdivided products, dry film photoresist has a relatively high technical content.

Dry film photoresist products are solid-state. They are prepared by coating a pre-prepared liquid photoresist on a carrier film (polyester PET film can be used). The processed solid photoresist film can be directly applied to the dry film photoresist. The resist is attached to the copper-clad board to be processed, and the circuit pattern on the mask board is copied to the dry film photoresist through exposure and development. The dry film photoresist etches the copper-clad board to prepare a PCB. The cost of dry film photoresist is higher, but it will not immerse the holes in the copper-clad board. Post-processing and cleaning are more convenient, and it has a high proportion of applications in specific application scenarios.

Dry film photoresist is mainly composed of resin, photoinitiator, monomer, solvent, etc. The performance and ratio of these components directly affect the performance of dry film photoresist. The main function of the resin is to bond the components into a film, which requires excellent adhesion, corrosion resistance, high and low temperature resistance, and easy removal; the photoinitiator absorbs light energy to produce a photochemical reaction to complete photolithography. It directly determines the photosensitive speed, exposure time, curing performance, etc. of the dry film photoresist; the function of the monomer is to regulate the photochemical reaction of the photoinitiator; the function of the solvent is to fuse the components together and as a photochemical reaction medium.

According to the “Dry Film Photoresist Industry In-depth Market Research and Investment Strategy Suggestions Report 2022-2026” released by the Industrial Research Center , in 2021, the global dry film photoresist market size will be approximately 5.9 billion yuan, and is expected to reach more than 7 billion yuan by 2026, with an average annual compound growth rate of 3.5%. Due to low technical difficulty, PCB photoresist accounts for more than 90% of my country’s photoresist market; in my country’s PCB photoresist market, wet film photoresist and photoimaging solder mask ink are the main product types , the technical barriers to dry film photoresist are relatively high, the number of manufacturing companies is small, and the annual output is small.

Globally, dry film photoresist manufacturers mainly include Asahi Kasei of Japan, Hitachi of Japan, Changxing Chemical of Taiwan, DuPont of the United States, and Cologne of South Korea. The top three companies have a combined market share of 82%. my country’s PCB photoresist companies mainly produce wet film photoresist and photoimaging solder mask ink. There are a few companies that can produce dry film photoresist, but they are mainly mid-to-low-end products with small production capacity, so the market share Small.

Industry analysts said that my country’s demand for dry film photoresist is highly dependent on external sources, mainly imported from Japan, the United States, and Taiwan, China. , import dependence reaches more than 90%, especially high-end products are completely dependent on imports. The few companies in my country with dry film photoresist production capabilities are mainly Beijing Kehua, Jingrui Electrical Materials, etc. In addition, companies such as Rongda Photosensitive and Nengdong Technology are also accelerating the pace of dry film photoresist layout. In the future, domestic Production capacity is expected to continue to expand.