We endow papers and ilms with special functions, such as releasability and resistance to water, heat, and abrasion to create release papers and ilms that protect the adhesive surfaces of a variety of adhesive products. We also produce casting papers that are used as patterning papers for placing designs on synthetic leather and casting papers used in the manufacture of carbon iber composite material sheets from ibers.
Main Products
• Release papers for general-use
• Release ilms for optical-related products
• Casting papers for synthetic leather
• Casting papers for carbon iber composite materials
Sales
Results of Fiscal Year 2017
¥ 20.6 billion 10.0 %
Business Strategies
Our business environment is extremely severe due to a variety of factors. These include intensify-ing price competition due to globalization, the emergence of Chinese manufacturers for castintensify-ing papers for synthetic leather, and the temporary decline in demand for passenger planes that use carbon iber composite materials brought about by lower crude oil prices.
Amid these conditions, we will strive to increase proits not by engaging in price competition to respond to the cheap prices of rival companies but rather by offering differentiated quality and services to our customers. To this end, we need to promote our business at an unrivaled pace in terms of every-thing from launching new products to improving quality and responding to customer inquiries.
Going forward, we will make concerted efforts in product development and improvement focusing on various key issues, such as developing casting papers for synthetic leather using a brand-new embossing method, enhancing the durability of casting papers for carbon iber composite materials, and increasing the number of solvent-free release papers to respond to the environment.
Yutaka Iwasaki Executive Oficer
General Manager, Converted Products Operations, Business Administration Div.
Goal for Fiscal Year 2020
Net Sales
¥ 206.0 billion
Fiscal year ended March 31, 2017
(Fiscal years ended / ending March 31) FY2020 (Forecast)
Adhesive applications
Through the development of adhe-sives and substrates and the com-bination of related technologies, we are expanding the range of ields in which the basic functions of
adhe-sive products, primarily adhesion and release, are utilized.
Surface improvement
Through the chemical and physical processing of the surfaces of paper and ilm, we are enhancing their
characteristics and adding new functionality.
System development
Through the systemization of machinery and equipment and building high-level systems that draw on the distinctive
characteris-tics of materials, we are providing advanced solutions.
Specialty papers and release materials
production
We use original papermaking technologies and coating,
impreg-nation, and laminating technolo-gies to develop special function papers and high-value-added materials that transcend traditional
concepts of paper.
Research and Development
As a technology-centered company, we realize that strengthening R&D capabilities is one of our most impor-tant management strategies for achieving sustainable growth. Two approaches help us to create both products that resolve our customers’ technological issues and products that are unprecedented, innovative, and lead the market: the developing of functional materials and related processing technologies that leverage our propri-etary technological capabilities and a market-dialogue style of research that emphasizes user needs. Going forward, we will further strengthen our R&D systems to accelerate the speed of product development and create new technologies.
Four Core Technologies
Research and Development Structure
The Research & Development Division’s research center has not only state-of-the-art research facilities but also a clean room with the same semiconductor-related equipment that is found in the production environment of our customers. The addition of the Advanced Technology Building, with its large-scale pilot coaters
that closely resemble factory mass production facilities, in 2015, provided a structure for smooth low from R&D to mass produc-tion. Approximately 200 research personnel are at work in eight laboratories and other departments. In addition, the Nano-Science & Technology Center in the U.S. state of Texas is engaged in research in new ields outside our current technology domain.
30 LINTEC ANNUAL REPORT 2017
R&D Achievements
In the iscal year under review, R&D expenses incurred by the Group amounted to ¥7.6 billion. The following is an overview of the principal R&D activities conducted by each operational segment.
Printing and Industrial Materials Products Printing and Variable Information Materials
We continued with our development of functional label materials designed to meet our customers’ required speciications with the aim of supplying label materials for a diverse range of appli-cations precisely when customers need them. We developed a label material suitable for cold environments as low as minus 196°C in medical and pharmaceutical ields. It is intended for displays and management labels on blood and cell samples and vaccines that are preserved in a frozen state. For displays and process management in the distribution, medical and pharma-ceutical sectors, we developed a
general-use new label material that allows for variable information print-ing and publishprint-ing from small lots.
This new product features tolerability of heat, humidity, and alcohol and supports direct thermal printers.
Electronic and Optical Products Semiconductor-Related Materials
Semiconductor packages with lip chips connected by bumps (protruding electrodes on the circuit) have come into widespread use as electronic devices such as smartphones have become thinner and achieved higher performance. We enhanced our lineup with back grinding tape that protects wafer surfaces within production processes and can be used with bumps of any height. Meanwhile, we also launched a new backside coating tape for lip chips that supports manufacturing processes.
Functional tapes are essential in the production of intelligent sensors and 3D NAND lash memories that use thin wafers, and by bringing such products to market, we play a part in the social development of IoT.
Optical Functional Materials
We are engaging in the development of adhesives for optical displays. We developed a vehicle display adhesive that prevents the formation of bubbles on plastic and is resistant to heat, humidity, and bleaching; an adhesive that inhibits corrosion of indium tin oxide and other materials used in touch sensors while also cutting out UV and blue light; and a functional adhesive for large-screen televisions. As a result of customizing features to produce superior performance in areas that particular custom-ers require, we are close to the adoption of our specialty light diffusion ilms, which control the diffusional ield, in many differ-ent types of relective displays. They have also been adopted as projection screens at airports and other locations. As these screens can be attached to the surface of existing structures, we expect them to be widely used.
Through these and other R&D activities, this segment incurred R&D expenses of ¥3.7 billion.
Example of light diffusion ilm in application
Relective LCD using LINTEC’s light diffusion ilm (right)
Commercial and Industrial Materials
We are constantly engaged in the development of functional adhe-sive materials for use in many different industries. Using the light diffusion ilm technology which we have developed for optical displays, we succeeded in developing vision control ilms that are uniquely designed for window glass. With these ilms, customers are able to control areas they wish to hide from view without compromising on glass transparency or natural lighting. Because windows appear either transparent or frosted depending on the viewing angle, privacy can be protected while preserving the view from the window. The ilms are suitable for use in ofices and shops, as well as on windows, doors and partitions in houses, due to the fact that they reduce the likelihood of fragments scattering if a window is broken and also cut out UV.
Through these and other R&D activities, this segment incurred
R&D expenses of ¥2.7 billion.
Research and Development
Paper and Converted Products
We developed and commenced sales of a new white craft paper that has excellent water-repellent characteristics and is suitable for offset printing and laser printers as a new version of an exist-ing product that was launched in 2015. The new version is also ideal for envelopes because of its concealment feature of more than 99% and the fact that it can protect important information they contain from view.
Through these and other R&D activities, this segment incurred R&D expenses of ¥1.3 billion.
LINTEC entered the semiconductor business ield in 1986 through the development of UV curable dicing tape that controls adhesion via UV radiation. This groundbreaking tape adheres strongly when thin wafers are being diced into chips to prevent the chips from scattering and reduces adhesion through UV radiation for easy removal when the chips are picked up. It currently has a global market share of around 50%.
Surface protective tapes have been gaining market share in recent years. They are used to protect circuits on wafer surfaces when the backside is being ground to make the wafer thinner. LINTEC tapes are winning plaudits for quality and performance as wafers become thinner and circuits become iner and more complex.
Our global share in backside coating tape for lip chips is almost 100%. Flip chips have protruding electrodes on their circuit, which are lipped for direct mounting on the substrate. LINTEC was the irst mover in developing tapes with a view to reinforc-ing the backside surfaces of lip chips as chips became thinner.
We will aim to raise our presence further in the semiconductor industry through the continuous provision and development of innovative new products with consistently high quality.
Column: LINTEC Semiconductor-Related Adhesive Tapes
Semiconductor chip manufacturing back-end processes
Tape Chip
Wafer following
circuit formation Lamination of surface protective tape
Back grinding
(wafer thinning) Lamination of dicing tape
Reverse
Removal of surface protective tape
Reverse
Dicing
(wafer cutting) UV irradiation of tape Picking up Die bonding Molding
Backside coating tape for lip chips Dicing tape
Bump Adhesive Substrate Flip chip
32 LINTEC ANNUAL REPORT 2017
Intellectual Property Activities
The LINTEC Group aims to increase corporate value by develop-ing original products that fully satisfy customer needs. We there-fore position intellectual property, including patents, trademarks, and design rights, acquired through these development activities as important management resources. While placing the utmost emphasis on respecting the rights of other companies, the Intellectual Property Department of the Research & Development Division promotes Companywide and strategic intellectual prop-erty activities that include identiication of new candidates for invention at R&D sites to add to our intellectual property rights, which are the lifeblood of a technology-centered company.
Accordingly, while linking activities such as patent portfolio building for our foundation and growth business domains with our business strategy, we aim to improve proitability based on intellectual property.
Japan Overseas 1,600 2,000
1,200
800
400
0 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
(Fiscal years ended March 31)
1,848 1,599 Number of Patents
Tatsuya Tsukida Executive Oficer General Manager,
Research & Development Div.
Under our previous medium-term business plan, LIP-2016, we sowed the seeds for bringing groundbreaking products from our laboratories to market. The Advanced Technology Building com-pleted in 2015, which enabled us to conduct testing on large-scale pilot coaters instead of on facilities in our plants, was extremely effective in improving development speed. As testing in the research center can be done without stopping existing facili-ties, we avoid production losses on lines in our plants and we are also able to obtain more detailed data. We also have coating facilities for use in developing mass production processes for next-generation products, and I think we will achieve striking results in the next three years.
Our irst step under the new medium-term business plan, LIP-2019, was to bring a planning department under the wing of the research center in April 2017. The aim was to incorporate our
basic tenets of “front-loading design”
1and “one-stop develop-ment”
2fully into the medium- and long-term development process to give concrete shape to the research activities of each lab without delay. Our research staff are instructed to deliver marketable products in the area on which they are working with the aim of creating as many new products as possible to contrib-ute to business. The globalization of LINTEC business has increased the importance of having research staff stationed overseas. Such staff not only provide technological support for overseas customers but are also very effective in obtaining an accurate picture of customer requirements. We therefore intend to second research staff to our subsidiaries overseas.
1 “Front-loading design” involves identifying development issues and risks as far as possible in the initial stages of product development and devising early responses to minimize the necessity for revisions at a later stage.
2 “One-stop development” consists of developing mass production processes in parallel with new materials development.