PCB News - IC high-end chips need to be paid attention to, ceramic substrates have a bright future

IC high-end chips need to be paid attention to, ceramic substrates have a bright future
The development of any industry mainly depends on three major parts, process/technology, production, and market. From the process point of view, since 1971, the chip manufacturing process has changed from 10μm to the mainstream 10nm high-end process. However, now that the 10nm process has become a symbol of high-end chip processing, most of the domestic industry is still at the μm level. It also makes most of the domestic related hardware equipment use μm level, which is a long way from the times.
There is a jewellery processing factory who turned to be the boss of chip packaging. He was very helpless about the bleak profits and the reluctance to maintain the business. He said: The profit of processing a piece of jewelry is several tens of dollars, but packaging a chip can only earn a few cents. No wonder he lamented the profit of market chips. At present, even 4G chips cannot be made in China. Most of the products produced are at the computing level of 2G/3G, which inevitably loses market competitiveness.

In terms of market supply and demand, the high-end chip industry chain is turning in a vicious circle: backward technology causes customers to have to go abroad to seek products, and domestic technology lacks perfect market soil and profit support. After all, the cost of tape-out in the chip industry is very high. The high cost and the easy budget of tens of millions of dollars makes the enterprises that intend to develop cautiously on the sidelines, so the technologies that need to be researched continue to lag behind. The country will be beaten if it is backward, and it is difficult for the technology to occupy the market share, and then it will return to the origin of the technology that is becoming more and more backward.
In order to achieve a situation where the high-end chip market is no longer controlled by others, it is bound to increase scientific research. In fact, my country has already issued a policy in 2014. The government has allocated US$100 billion to US$150 billion to promote the development of science and technology. In the field of electronics industry, companies engaged in various chip design, assembly, and packaging are naturally supporting the ranks. The country put forward new targets and guidance specifically for the industry in 2015, and the chip homemade rate should reach 70% within ten years.
But power has always been the biggest problem for high-end chips, and ceramic substrates can just reduce their losses, and they have been well applied in high-end products in the fields of home appliance lighting, information communications, sensors, etc., and are a new generation of large-scale integrated circuits. And ideal packaging materials for power electronic modules. Because of the technological progress and standard requirements in these fields, the related technology of ceramic substrates in enterprise production has gradually matured.
At present, ceramic substrates have higher thermal conductivity, more matching thermal expansion coefficient, stable performance and strong reliability on the equipment; good solderability, repeated soldering, high temperature resistance, long service life, and can be used in reducing atmospheres. Medium and long-term use and other factors can well meet the high-performance requirements of general-purpose chips and special-purpose chips.
The predicament of high-end chips shows that if you want to occupy a place in today's world, technology R&D and hardware must keep up. Both are indispensable. Ceramic substrates are shining in the electronics industry world because of their natural characteristics and reliable performance in practice. Manufacturers must consider substrate materials when formulating PCB product strategies and R&D directions.