PCB News - 5G, PCB ushered in new challenges

5G, PCB ushered in new challenges

The news of 5G is endless, either operators start large-scale testing, or terminal manufacturers release 5G mobile phones. The 5G service for the general public recently officially launched in South Korea also announced the opening of the 5G commercial scene. The commercialization of 5G brings unlimited market opportunities to the upstream and downstream industries. As a key interconnect for assembling electronic parts, how will PCBs (printed circuit boards, also known as printed circuit boards) get a share of the 5G market? Are 5G's technical requirements for PCBs unattainable? Can domestic PCB companies take the opportunity of 5G to achieve overtaking in curves?

5G provides a huge market for PCB

PCB is known as the "mother of electronic products". It not only provides electrical connections for electronic components, but also carries business functions such as digital and analog signal transmission, power supply, and radio frequency microwave signal transmission and reception of electronic equipment. Most electronic equipment and All products need PCB.

It is understood that every 1 yuan of PCB can support the development of 30 yuan of terminal products. The 5G era has provided a huge market and opportunities for the PCB industry. According to estimates, the direct economic benefits of 5G in 2020, 2025 and 2030 will be 484 billion yuan, 3.3 trillion yuan and 6.3 trillion yuan, respectively. The economic benefits of output are 1.2 trillion yuan, 6.3 trillion yuan, and 10.6 trillion yuan respectively.

From the construction of communication networks, to terminals, and to derivative application scenarios, 5G puts a lot of demands on PCBs. Yang Zhicheng, chairman of Shennan Circuits Co., Ltd., told the reporter of China Electronics News that in 5G wireless base stations, bearer networks, transmission networks, and core network hardware facilities, the application of PCB hardware will increase significantly, such as 5G radio frequency boards and backplanes., High-speed network boards, server motherboards, microwave boards, power boards, etc. Qu Dingshi, marketing manager of Shenzhen Suntak Circuit Technology Co., Ltd., also said that with the upgrading of communication technology, from 4G to 5G, the quantity and price of PCB required in communication base stations have risen. Due to the high-frequency microwave characteristics of 5G, the density of base stations is higher than that of 4G base stations. At the same time, the processing frequency, data transmission and processing speed of various devices are much higher than in the 4G era. These core main equipment, transmission equipment, antenna/radio frequency equipment put forward very high demand for high-frequency and high-speed boards, and the unit price is higher than that of 4G base station PCBs. According to estimates, in a single base station, 5G base stations require twice as much PCB as 4G base stations. In addition, 5G terminal equipment, such as mobile phones, smart watches, etc., also need to be updated with communication technology. The PCB demand for this part is much greater than that of the infrastructure part.

It is predicted that the total value of 4G macro base station PCB is about 5492 yuan. The global 4G base station PCB market space is about 5 billion yuan/year to 9 billion yuan/year, and the corresponding CCL (copper foil substrate) is about 1 billion yuan/year to 2 billion yuan/year. The PCB value of the 5G macro base station is about 15,104 yuan per station. In the peak year, the PCB demand brought by the construction of 5G base stations is about 21 billion yuan per year to 24 billion yuan per year, corresponding to the CCL market space of about 8 billion yuan.

5G requires comprehensive improvement of PCB technology

While 5G brings opportunities to the PCB industry, it also imposes higher and more stringent requirements on technology. Its indicators in terms of speed, integration, heat dissipation, frequency, and multilayer are much higher than 4G.

Yang Zhicheng told the reporter of "China Electronics News" that full-spectrum intervention, Massive MIMO and ultra-dense networks will be the technical core of the realization of 5G networks. Correspondingly, technical challenges are also presented to the PCB. First of all, the structure and function of the base station radio unit and antenna have undergone major changes. The main manifestation is the increase in the number of radio unit channels (8 channels up to 64 channels), which corresponds to an increase in PCB area; 4G base station equipment RRU plus antenna unit The structure is changed to 5G AAU structure (integrated RRU and antenna function), corresponding to higher PCB integration. Secondly, in order to achieve ultra-dense network coverage, in addition to spectrum applications below 6GHz in the 5G spectrum, 28G, 39G and other millimeter wave spectrum resources for hotspot coverage and large-capacity high-speed transmission will be widely used. Therefore, high-frequency microwave base stations The demand for high-frequency PCBs used will increase. Finally, under the network architecture of 5G independent networking, in order to meet the technical requirements of high-speed transmission, the PCB required by the baseband unit, network board, backplane, server and other data transmission equipment will use higher-level high-speed copper clad laminate materials. . "These technical challenges require domestic PCB companies to keep abreast of technology and market trends and take the path of differentiation in order to build unique competitiveness." Yang Zhicheng said.

In addition, the thermal management of PCB products may become particularly important in the future. "Not only are there reasons for adapting to high-frequency devices, but also the heat dissipation requirements brought about by high power and high power density. The application of new high thermal conductivity materials, special heat dissipation structure PCB needs will appear." Shenzhen Mutailai Circuit Technology Chen Xingnong, Chairman of the Co., Ltd. said, “The servers required for big data and cloud computing use high-level, high-reliability multi-layer boards; new technology fields such as the Internet of Things, intelligent manufacturing, and autonomous driving will have some special structures PCB requirements with special technical requirements may require special materials, but it may also be a special structure different from traditional PCBs, or PCBs with manufacturing accuracy requirements far exceeding the general level."

In-depth understanding of customer needs and take the road of differentiation

With the rapid development of the electronic information industry, the PCB industry has continued to maintain a growth trend. The global PCB output has increased from more than US$40 billion in 2008 to US$60 billion in 2018. The global share of China's PCB industry has also changed dramatically, from less than 10% in 2000, to 30% in 2018, and to more than 50% in 2018.

Yang Zhicheng told the reporter of "China Electronics News" that in the past 10 years, the focus of the PCB industry has continuously shifted to the Asian region, and China has become the world's largest PCB industry base. "Nevertheless, there is still a certain gap between domestic PCB companies and foreign companies in terms of technology, especially high-end PCB products. 5G is a rare opportunity. By seizing this opportunity, domestic PCB companies can improve their scale, technology, and management. We will catch up with and surpass major international companies in all aspects," Zhai Dingshi told reporters.

On January 2 this year, the "Printed Circuit Board Industry Specification Conditions" and the "Printed Circuit Board Industry Specification Announcement Management Interim Measures" formulated by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology mentioned the need to encourage PCB companies to strengthen top-level design and promote automation equipment Upgrade, promote the improvement of the level of automation, and integrate automation, informatization and intelligence throughout all aspects of design, production, management and service; encourage enterprises to actively develop intelligent manufacturing, reduce operating costs, shorten product production cycles, and improve production efficiency. In the 5G era, PCB companies must keep up with the times. "Improve internal strength in R&D, production, and management, increase research and investment in product technology, and continue to meet the new requirements of customers and products." Yang Zhicheng said.

Different from OEM manufacturing of standard products, PCB is a customized product that serves downstream customers. It is a highly "customized" product and requires a deeper understanding of customer needs. Zhai Dingshi said that 5G is a technology that is constantly developing and constantly innovating. If it cannot keep up with customer needs and conduct more thorough and detailed research on products with customers, it will be difficult to achieve progress with the market. He also emphasized that technical communication with raw material companies should be strengthened. Many products in the 5G era have high requirements for raw materials and production processes. Only when a good raw material supply system can be established in China can we steadily and quickly make improvements in the 5G PCB field. Big and stronger. Su Xinhong, deputy dean of the PCB Research Institute of Zhuhai Founder Printed Circuit Board Development Co., Ltd., cited as an example, companies that do printed circuit boards (printed circuit boards) for communication equipment need to conduct research on high-speed material applications, signal integrity, and signal simulation. At the same time, it is necessary to conduct research on high-speed material technology and upgrade corresponding equipment to meet the requirements of increased accuracy of circuit board manufacturers.