Status of
Status of the Advanced IC Substrates Industry 2026
Advanced IC substrate market projected to grow at a ~9%CAGR, primarily fueled by surging demand for AI accelerators.
YINTR26579Advanced IC substrates are generating strong growth momentum, with revenues accelerating as demand for higher integration and performance increases. The market is expected to expand at a high 12% CAGR over the next five years, with a significant ramp toward 2029–2030 driven by adoption in AI, HPC, and advanced heterogeneous integration platforms.
The advanced substrate ecosystem is attracting different business models across the value chain. Early development has been led by material suppliers, substrate manufacturers, and select IDMs exploring glass cores, SLP, and embedded die integration. This momentum is now expanding.
Advanced IC substrates are evolving beyond organic core to meet scaling and performance demands. Glass core substrates are emerging for high-end applications with superior dimensional stability and fine interconnect capability. In parallel, SLP extends substrate-like integration into AI and cost-sensitive markets, while embedded die enables higher integration and improved electrical performance at the substrate level for AI as well.
WHAT'S NEW
- Advanced substrates segmentation by end-market
- Requirements by end-markets
- IC Substrate's role within the GenAI/Edge AI wave
- New plants map
- Glass Core substrates – deep dive into the new axes od development of GCS
- Supply chain dynamics
- Investments
- Geopolitical impact over the advanced substrates supply chain
- More teardowns’ content
Report objectives
- Focuses on four advanced IC substrate platforms
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- Advanced IC substrates
- Organic Core Substrate
- Glass Core substrate - NEW
- Silicon core substrates - NEW
- Ceramic core substrates - NEW
- Substrate-like PCB (SLP)
- Embedded die
- Delivers an overview of the following topics for each substrate platform
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- Market trends and drivers: key applications and our predictions for the industry roadmap
- Forecasts: production volume, panel production volume, and revenue
- Technology roadmap: existing technology descriptions
- Supply chain: Who uses these technologies, and how is the supply chain organized?
- Provides an overview of the Chinese IC substrate ecosystem
How AI, Chiplets, and Glass Core Are Reshaping the IC Substrate Market to 2031
The global IC substrate market is recovering from a -16% correction in 2023 and is projected to surpass $25B by 2031, growing through 2031. Growth is concentrated in FC-BGA and 2.5D/3D substrates serving AI accelerators and hyperscale data centers, while mobile and consumer segments face margin compression. The competitive landscape remains tightly held, the top five manufacturers control over half of global revenue, but Chinese entrants are scaling fast, and the emergence of glass core substrates, substrate-less packaging (CoWoP), and new dielectric materials threatens to redraw the market map within the decade.
Concentration Risk, Geopolitical Exposure, and the Race to Rewire Substrate Supply
Most of the world's ABF dielectric film comes from a single Japanese company. Five substrate manufacturers control 3/4 of global advanced capacity. Raw material prices are surging and Nvidia is now reaching directly into the raw materials tier to lock supply away from competitors. The IC substrate supply chain is the most concentrated, geopolitically exposed chokepoint in the entire semiconductor value chain, and the race to break these monopolies, from Thintronics, to three Chinese challengers to a wave of glass core JVs across Korea and Japan, is just beginning.
Many Vectors, One Inflection: The Technology Forces Redefining What an IC Substrate Can Be
Six technology vectors are fragmenting the IC substrate architecture simultaneously: substrate-less packages (CoWoP), coreless designs, glass/silicon/ceramic core materials, wafer-vs-panel processing, multicore stacking, and embedded active die. JEDEC's forthcoming SPHBM4 standard could decouple HBM4-class memory from silicon interposers entirely by enabling organic substrate mounting, a potential inflection point for the packaging industry. Meanwhile, the SLP market is projected to bypass $ 5B cap by 2031 as CoWoP threatens to elevate PCB-grade boards into the AI packaging stack. The substrate is no longer a commodity layer, it is the battleground.
Report description
Glossary
About the authors
Report objectives
Scope of the report
3-Pages summary
Executive summary
Semiconductor Industry & Advanced Packaging Context
Market Forecasts
- Forecasts “Organic Advanced IC Substrates”
- Build-up Substrates
- Glass Core Substrates (GCS)
- Forecasts ‘Embedded Die’
- Forecasts ‘Substrate like-PCB’
Market Trends
- DataCenter leading the most complex requirements for AICS
- The automotive market – Another big landscape for AICS
- The VR and AR headsets
- Evolution In Advanced IC substrate DEMAND
- New technical enabling and new business opportunities
- AICS for the datacenter/HPC Market
- AICS and GCS for Co-packaged optics
- Glass core substrate
- Embedded die
- Substrate like pcb
Supply chain
- investments mapping in organic advanced IC substrates
- Analyst’s picks – Top Glass news 2024/1h2025
- Partnerships Consortia and acquisitions
- Local Korean GCS supply chain – The most active one?
- Japan – an essential base for glass core suppliers
- Glass core substrate supply chain and involved business Models
- Glass core substrate supply chain
- ROC – Mainland
Technology trends
- Advanced IC substrate positioning
- Glass core substrate and chiplets/heterogeneous integration
- Beyond the organic substrate limits
- The key Technology Enabling The Glass Core Substrates
- Overview of bottlenecks facing GCS industry
- TGV formation & singulation – 2 problems -- 1 solution
- Embedding technology in glass
- EMIB Roadmap
- Competitive Technologies
- Fujitsu’s G-ALCS Technology – One core only?
- NEG’s core – A glass core with a touch of ceramic powder
- From EMIB to EMAB or EMIB-like technologies
- Schweitzer new technology
Teardowns
- Advanced IC substrates teardowns
- Advanced IC substrate in Nvidia’s products
- SLP in wearables – teardown
- Embedding Technologies in Apple products
Roadmaps
- Technology Roadmap - IC Substrate (FC BGA)
- Glass Core substrate roadmap
- Substrate-like PCB roadmap
- Embedded die roadmap
Conclusions
Yole Group Related Products
Yole Group Corporate Presentation
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