What profound impact will 5G communication have on PCB technology?

Looking at local PCB manufacturers, there are three companies that have officially entered the 5G trial production stage, namely Shenzhen South Circuit, Xinsen Technology, and Suntak Technology. At the same time, more and more local PCB companies are not willing to be outdone and are actively joining the 5G competition...

1G makes phone calls, 2G chats on QQ, 3G browses Weibo, 4G watches videos, and 5G downloads a movie in one second... I believe this is how most people understand the iteration of mobile communication technology. Little do people know that the fifth generation of mobile communication technology (5G), as a new generation of revolutionary technology, not only means an exponential increase in data transmission speed, but also a truly integrated network. Related application fields will be promoted, such as the Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, artificial intelligence, Internet of Vehicles, and interactive multimedia applications will be popularized, thus forming an era of "Internet of Everything".

As the "mother of electronic products", the profound changes in the downstream consumer market will directly affect the development trajectory of the PCB industry. It is generally believed in the industry that in the next three to five years, 5G communications will surpass the current two major application markets of smart terminals and automotive electronics and become the first engine driving the growth of the PCB industry.

China's PCB enters the 5G era

From 2010 to now, the growth rate of global PCB output value has generally declined. On the one hand, the rapid iteration of new terminal technologies continues to impact low-end production capacity, and single- and double-sided boards, which once ranked first in output value, are gradually replaced by high-end production capacity such as multi-layer boards, HDI, FPC, and rigid-flexible boards. On the other hand, the weak demand in the terminal market and the abnormal price increase of raw materials have also made the entire industry chain turbulent. PCB companies are committed to reshaping their core competitiveness and transforming from "winning by quantity" to "winning by quality" and "winning by technology".

值得自豪的是，在全球电子市场和全球PCB产值增速双下滑的背景下，中国PCB产值每年的增速均高于全球，总产值占全球的比例也显著提升，由2008年的31.18%上升至2018年的52.6%(Prismark数据)。显而易见，中国已成为全球PCB行业的最大生产国，由此中国PCB产业有更好的状态去迎接5G通信的到来！

Looking at local PCB manufacturers, there are three companies that have officially entered the 5G trial production stage, namely Shenzhen South Circuit, Xinsen Technology, and Suntak Technology. In 2018, Shenzhen South Circuit has developed PCB products for 5G wireless base stations, bearer networks, core networks, etc.; Xinsen Technology's self-developed 5G antenna printed circuit boards have also achieved mass production and industrialization; Suntak Technology, which mainly focuses on exports, has established 5G cooperation relationships with many overseas customers such as CommScope, Rosenberger, and Qualcomm. Whether in terms of design, manufacturing, equipment, materials, end customers, etc., these three local PCB companies belong to the first echelon of 5G PCB applications.

At the same time, more and more local PCB companies are not willing to be outdone and are actively joining the 5G competition. Oscon, Zhongjing Electronics, Luxshare Precision, and Jiesai Technology have all established their own 5G research centers; Shanghai Electric Co., Ltd. and Mingyang Circuit have achieved small-batch 5G PCB supply; Dongshan Precision and Eton Electronics are increasing investment to lay out 5G PCB production bases... It can be seen that 5G communication has become a battle that Chinese PCB companies cannot miss.

Positive outlook on 5G PCB market

"In fact, 5G communication has been proposed for several years, and the real product should be launched in 2019." Wu Yuanli, component purchasing manager of the Purchasing Management Center of Xinsen Technology, said in an interview with International Electronic Business, "So the pattern of the 5G industry chain has not yet been formed, and all companies are qualified to compete for the right to speak on 5G. It is foreseeable that 5G will definitely mature and develop rapidly in the next three years, and this 5G PCB competition will definitely be very exciting!"

It is understood that Xinsen Technology is a well-known domestic design and manufacturing service provider of printed circuit board samples, express delivery and small batch boards. The company provides one-stop design, manufacturing, sales and supporting technical services for the industrial chain around the three main business lines of PCB business, military products business and semiconductor business.

Chen Chun, Chief Engineer of Jinbaize Technology

Chen Chun, chief engineer of Jinbaize Technology, told reporters: "Since last year, Jinbaize has been prototyping and testing 5G products for customers, and has now begun producing some medium-volume 5G orders for some customers." According to reports, Jinbaize Technology is an integrated electronic circuit design and manufacturing service provider serving research and development. Its business includes electronic product hardware design, PCB design, PCB manufacturing, EMS and BOM engineering optimization.

Chen Chun said: "According to relevant industry research data, the annual output value of PCBs for radio frequency base stations brought by 5G alone can reach more than RMB 24 billion per year (mainland China is expected to account for 50%), which is more than four times that of 4G. Based on the technical specifications of PCBs for 5G, in addition to the demand for PCBs themselves, the application of 5G will bring new growth momentum to upstream suppliers such as high-frequency and high-speed materials, more sophisticated production and testing equipment, and new surface treatment processes."

Wu Jun, Vice President of R&D, YiBo Technology

As a well-known PCB design company in China, YiBo Technology estimates the market value that 5G communication brings to the PCB industry from a design perspective. "The popularization of 5G requires the layout of more RF transmission equipment in the same area. In other words, a large number of signal RF devices are needed to meet 5G data transmission and all-weather coverage of the entire social area. The demand for these devices is a huge driving force for high-frequency boards and high-frequency circuit board processing." said Wu Jun, vice president of research and development of YiBo Technology.

Challenges of 5G Communication to PCB Process

5G communication is a large and complex integrated technology. Its challenges to PCB technology are mainly concentrated in the following aspects: large size, high multi-layer, high frequency, high speed, low loss, high density, rigid-flex combination, high-low frequency mixed voltage, etc. So many process technologies have put forward new or higher requirements for PCB materials, design, processing, and quality control. PCB companies need to understand the changing needs and propose comprehensive solutions.

Requirements for materials: A very clear direction for 5G PCB is high-frequency and high-speed materials and board making. Wu Jun pointed out that in terms of high-frequency materials, it can be clearly seen that leading material manufacturers in the traditional high-speed field such as Lianmao, Shengyi, and Panasonic have begun to deploy high-frequency boards and launched a series of new materials. This will break the current situation in which Rogers is the only one in the high-frequency board field. After healthy competition, the performance, convenience, and availability of materials will be greatly enhanced. Therefore, the localization of high-frequency materials is an inevitable trend.

In terms of high-speed materials, Wu Yuanli believes that 400G products need to use materials of the same level as M7N and MW4000. In backplane design, M7N is already the lowest loss option, and future backplanes/optical modules with larger capacity will require materials with lower loss. The combination of resin, copper foil, and glass cloth will achieve the best balance between electrical performance and cost. In addition, high layers and high density will also bring reliability challenges.

Requirements for PCB design: The selection of board materials must meet the requirements of high frequency and high speed. Impedance matching, stacking planning, wiring spacing/holes, etc. must meet the signal integrity requirements. Specifically, it can start from the six aspects of loss, embedment, high-frequency phase/amplitude, mixing pressure, heat dissipation, and PIM.

Requirements for process technology: Wu Jun believes that the improvement of the functions of 5G-related application products will increase the demand for high-density PCBs, and HDI will also become an important technical field. Multi-level HDI products and even products with arbitrary-level interconnection will become popular, and new processes such as buried resistors and buried capacitors will also have more and more applications.

Chen Chun added that the uniformity of PCB copper thickness, accuracy of line width, interlayer alignment, interlayer dielectric thickness, control accuracy of back drilling depth, and plasma decontamination capabilities are all worthy of further study.

Requirements for equipment and instruments: Wu Yuanli pointed out that high-precision equipment and pre-treatment lines with less copper surface roughening are currently the more ideal processing equipment; and the test equipment includes passive intermodulation testers, flying probe impedance testers, loss test equipment, etc.

Chen Chun believes that precision graphic transfer and vacuum etching equipment, detection equipment that can monitor and feedback data changes in line width and coupling spacing in real time; electroplating equipment with good uniformity, high-precision lamination equipment, etc. can also meet the production needs of 5G PCBs.

Requirements for quality control: As the 5G signal rate increases, the impact of board manufacturing deviation on signal performance becomes greater, which requires stricter control of board manufacturing production deviation. However, the existing mainstream board manufacturing process and equipment are not updated much, which will become a bottleneck for future technological development. How PCB manufacturers can break through is crucial.

In terms of quality monitoring, Jinbaize has further strengthened the statistical process control of key product parameters and managed data in a more real-time manner to ensure product consistency and meet the performance requirements of the antenna in terms of phase, standing wave, amplitude, etc.

How to control the cost of 5G?

The cost of early research and development for any new technology is huge. Moreover, 5G communication has not yet launched any products. "High investment, high return, and high risk" has become the consensus in the industry. How to balance the input-output ratio of new technologies? Local PCB companies have shown their magical powers in cost control.

Wu Jun believes that there are two ways to manage costs. One is to balance costs by increasing production scale and capacity, which will form some large-scale manufacturing companies. The other is to target PCB manufacturers that quickly develop and deliver products, with more flexible product design and development to cope with the pressure of rapid delivery brought about by shortened product cycles.

Jinbaize, which has advantages in hardware design and PCB design, believes that the key to reducing costs and increasing efficiency is to start from the source. Chen Chun explained that first of all, in the engineering design stage of PCB, it is necessary to optimize the design around cost, and convene a cross-departmental team to conduct a special review of cost. Through the early participation of procurement, production and process departments in the engineering stage, more cost-reducing designs can be proposed. For example, the utilization rate can be improved by customizing the board size and combining products with similar process flows, increasing the size of the production board, and optimizing the laminated structure to reduce the board cost.

Different from the first two, Xinsen Technology's cost control logic is more drastic. As long as the input and output are proportional, Xinsen has the confidence to break through. Take its IC substrate business as an example. From its layout in 2013 to the present, it has invested more than 1 billion yuan in five years, but has suffered losses for five consecutive years. It was not until the second half of 2018 that Xinsen Technology finally successfully entered the industrial chain of well-known companies such as Samsung, Kingston, and Hynix in South Korea, and orders came in like snowflakes. At present, the company's IC substrate business is operating at full capacity, and orders are even scheduled until next year.

Similarly, Xinsen Technology will certainly not miss the unlimited business opportunities in the 5GPCB market. Wu Yuanli said that on the one hand, the starting point of 5G PCB technology is high, the initial equipment investment is large, and there is a lack of professionals. It is difficult for general small and medium-sized enterprises to achieve success overnight. Xinsen Technology has always reserved competitive advantages in process technology, supporting equipment, and professional talents. On the other hand, due to the delay in the implementation of 5G communication products, 5G PCB is essentially a trial product developed by supporting terminal customers in a short period of time. This requires PCB companies to synchronize with terminal customers and equipment manufacturers in all aspects, and constantly adjust and match customer needs. At present, Xinsen Technology has reached long-term cooperation with global 5G leaders such as Samsung, Huawei, and ZTE, and has obvious customer advantages.

In addition, in order to reduce the dual costs of customer procurement and company sales, Xinsen Technology continues to deepen its one-stop PCB customization services, from CAD design, sales, manufacturing, SMT surface mounting, and even e-commerce platforms are under preparation.

Manufacturing PCBs in a smarter, greener environment

It is undeniable that PCB belongs to the high-tech industry, but because the PCB manufacturing process includes etching and other processes, PCB companies are unknowingly misunderstood as "major polluters", "major energy consumers" and "major water consumers". Today, when environmental protection and sustainable development are highly valued, once PCB companies are labeled as "polluters", it will be difficult for them to move forward, not to mention the development of 5G technology. Therefore, Chinese PCB companies have built green factories and smart factories.

In terms of environmental protection, the more developed the economy is in the region where the PCB enterprise is located, the greater the restrictions and management it faces. The three manufacturing plants of Xinsen Technology, Jinbaize Technology, and Yibo Technology are located in Guangzhou, Huizhou, and Shenzhen respectively, in Guangdong, the most economically developed region in China. Therefore, when talking about PCB environmental protection work, the three interviewees were deeply touched.

"Energy conservation and environmental protection are hurdles that PCB companies cannot avoid. In addition to investing huge sums of money to promote energy conservation and emission reduction, Xinsen Technology also conducts regular communications and exchanges with government agencies and environmental protection units, and insists on implementing the national government's environmental protection goals and requirements." Wu Yuanli said.

Chen Chun said that green manufacturing is still one of the important issues facing PCB companies. Jinbaize has also increased its investment in equipment and management in reducing the source of three wastes and recycling of drugs, further improving the level of clean production.

YiBo Technology, which is famous for its PCB design, also has its own PCB factory, providing multi-layer PCB production services from samples to batches. Wu Jun said: "In recent years, the call for environmental protection has become louder and louder, and some related technologies have also been promoted, such as the development of photolithography technology and the progress of 3D printing technology. I believe that as long as the corresponding costs are reduced to a reasonable level, they will definitely be applied and popularized."

In terms of smart factories, due to the complex processing flow of PCBs and the large number of equipment types and brands, there is great resistance to fully realizing factory intelligence. At present, the intelligence level of some newly built factories is relatively high, and the per capita output value of some advanced newly built smart factories in China can reach 3 to 4 times the industry average. However, some other factories are the transformation and upgrading of old factories, which involve different communication protocols between different equipment and between new and old equipment, and the progress of intelligent transformation is slow.

It is revealed that the smart factory transformation project of Xinsen Technology in Guangzhou Science City will be completed by the end of this year. By then, the smart factory will be almost fully automated, the required staff will be further reduced, and the output value is expected to be more than three times higher than the original.

"In 2019, Jinbaize is exploring the creation of a digital middle platform to connect front-end services and back-end manufacturing systems," said Chen Chun. "For Jinbaize itself, we were relatively early in introducing the concept of intelligent design and manufacturing. Because of our flexible manufacturing characteristics of multiple varieties and small batches, we applied digital direct laser imaging systems, intelligent inkjet printing systems and other intelligent equipment and intelligent engineering software as early as ten years ago, which is relatively advanced in the industry."