PCB News - Which pcb materials are more popular in 5g era?

IHS research shows that by 2035, the 5g industrial chain alone will reach 3.5 trillion US dollars of economic exports and create 22 million jobs. What's more, 5g will create 12.3 trillion US dollars of sales activities in many industries around the world, accounting for 4% of the total global sales activities.

Which PCB material is more popular in 5g era? High frequency PCB materials for polytetrafluoroethylene.

The material properties of high frequency PCB board, including dielectric constant (DK), must be small and stable, which is consistent with the thermal expansion coefficient of copper foil, and the water absorption rate is low, otherwise the dielectric constant and dielectric loss will be affected when wet. In addition, it must also have good heat resistance, chemical resistance, impact strength, peeling strength, etc.

5G High frequency PCB

The thermoplastic material polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) has the characteristics of high temperature resistance and working temperature as high as 250 degree Celsius. In a wide frequency range, the dielectric constant and dielectric loss are very low, and the breakdown voltage, volume resistance and arc resistance are very high. Therefore, PTFE is an ideal PCB material.

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) can also be reinforced by various fillers such as glass fiber or ceramic materials to improve the thermal expansion coefficient of the material. This kind of material has the low temperature and electrical properties of polytetrafluoroethylene material, which is very suitable for the application of high frequency millimeter plate.

LCP liquid crystal polymer for mobile phone antenna becomes a new favorite

As an important part of wireless communication, antenna technology innovation is the key driving force to promote the development of wireless connection. With the approaching of 5g and the scale deployment of Internet of things, the role of antenna in 5g network will become more and more important, and the development prospect will be very broad.

Taking smart phones as an example, due to the development of industry and market, with the integration and high degree of integration of mobile phone exterior design, the internal space of mobile phone is becoming smaller and smaller. It can be said that antenna design is very difficult.

More than 70% of the internal antenna has been connected to the external antenna in the early stage. At present, the soft board substrate of mobile phone antenna is mainly PI. However, due to the large dielectric constant and loss factor of PI substrate, strong hygroscopicity, serious high frequency transmission loss and poor structural characteristics, it can not meet the requirements of 5g for material properties.

With the development of 5g technology, industrial liquid crystal polymer (LCP) has become an ideal antenna material. It is a new type of high performance special engineering plastics developed in the early 1980s. It generally shows liquid crystal characteristics in molten state. It has excellent electrical insulation performance, higher dielectric strength than general engineering plastics and good arc resistance. Even if the continuous service temperature is 200 degree Celsius 300 degree Celsius, its electrical properties will not be affected. Intermittent use temperature up to 316 degree Celsius! Compared with PI and LCP materials, LCP materials have smaller dielectric loss and conductor loss, more flexible and more sealed. Therefore, LCP materials have broad application prospects in manufacturing high-frequency devices. With the development of 4G to high frequency and high speed 5g network, LCP is expected to replace Pi as a new soft board process.

For example, Apple's iPhone x uses a multilayer liquid crystal polymer antenna for the first time, while the iPhone XS / xsmax / XR uses multiple LCP antennas. In the upstream production, the main manufacturers include DuPont, Ticona, Sumitomo, poly plastics, Dongli, etc. For example, Sumitomo, one of the major manufacturers of LCP resin, is optimistic about the key application of LCP resin in 5g era. It is believed that the application of LCP will become more and more important in the future.

MPI modified polyimide 5g cell phone antenna material Nova.

However, LCP has many advantages in practical applications. According to foreign media reports, analyst Guo Mingyi pointed out in a report on the new iPhone in 2019 that in view of Apple's low bargaining power with LCP raw material suppliers and the lack of new LCP soft board suppliers, Apple Mobile will combine LCP with the latest MPI (modified PI) technology in 2019 to cater for and promote 5g technology.

So what is MPI? Modified Pi is actually an improved polyimide antenna. As an amorphous material, MPI has a wide range of working temperatures, which is easy to operate under low temperature pressing copper foil, and its surface can be easily connected with copper. Therefore, MPI material may also become a hot material for 5g equipment in the future.

Radome: a variety of resin matrix began to use

Since 5g antenna follows the MIMO (multiple input multiple output) concept, it means multiple inputs and multiple outputs, which means that multiple antennas can be installed on the base station, and the size of these antennas is very small, so it is necessary to protect the radome.

The radome should have good electromagnetic wave penetration characteristics, and its mechanical properties should be able to withstand the erosion of external harsh environment such as storm, ice and snow, sand dust, solar radiation, etc.

In terms of material requirements, the dielectric constant and loss tangent at operating frequency must be low and adequate mechanical strength. Generally speaking, inflatable radome is usually coated with polyester film, coated with Hipalon rubber or neoprene, glass fiber reinforced plastics for rigid radome, honeycomb core or foam for sandwich structure.

In the trend of 5g, the composite material with excellent performance has become a popular radome material. The composite has the functions of insulation, anti-corrosion, lightning protection, anti-interference and durability, and has good wave isolation effect. The composite is composed of reinforced fiber and resin matrix. Generally, the mechanical properties and dielectric properties of reinforced materials are better than those of resin matrix, so the permeability of composites mainly depends on the properties of resin matrix. Therefore, it is very important to select the resin matrix with excellent electrical properties. At the same time, the resin also plays an adhesive role in the composite, which is the basic component to determine the heat resistance of the composite.

The main choice of resin matrix includes: traditional unsaturated polyester resin (up), epoxy resin (EP), modified phenolic resin (PF) and new high temperature resistant resin, such as cyanate ester resin (CE), silicone resin, bismaleimide resin (BMI), polyimide (PI), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), etc.

Ideal heat conduction and heat dissipation material for graphene 5g equipment

With the upgrading of high-frequency and hardware components and the doubling of the number of connecting devices and antennas, electromagnetic interference between and within devices is ubiquitous, and the harm of electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic radiation to electronic equipment is more and more serious. At the same time, with the updating and upgrading of electronic products, the power consumption of the equipment is increasing, and the heating value is also increasing rapidly. In the future, high-frequency and high-power electronic products should focus on solving the electromagnetic radiation and heat problems. Therefore, more and more electromagnetic shielding and heat conduction devices will be added to the design of electronic products. Therefore, the role of electromagnetic shielding and heat dissipation materials and devices will become more and more important, and the demand will continue to grow in the future. Taking heat conduction graphene as an example, 5g mobile phone is expected to adopt customized thermal conductive graphene scheme in more key components, and the composite multilayer high thermal conductivity film will be more widely used due to its good heat dissipation effect.

Now, with the promotion of major mobile phone chip manufacturers, mobile phone manufacturers and operators, we obviously feel that the wave of "5g" is getting closer and closer!

Since its establishment, ipcb has been engaged in the rapid sample production of high frequency microwave PCB and double sided multilayer boards. Power amplifier dry release. Base station. RF antenna, 4G / 5G antenna for high frequency PCB, with professional production experience. The company has domestic and imported high-frequency PCB (Rogers (Taconic) ro4003c, ro4350b, TACAN tlf-35, Yalong (Yalong), esona (esona) fr408hr belongs to TG 190 material, FR 408 belongs to tg180 material, f4b, tp-2, FR-4, dielectric constant 2.2 ≤ 10.6), can provide rapid sample and batch service in time, welcome new and old customers to call and write to order.