Cooling manufacturers begin mass production of heat spreaders

Driven by the commercialization of 5G and the increase in terminal volume, 5G mobile phones are promoting technological innovation in the entire industrial chain, with motherboards, antennas, heat dissipation, etc. becoming key points for breakthroughs.

Among them, as 5G mobile phones develop towards intelligence, multi-functions, and lightness, the high integration and assembly density of their chips have increased, resulting in a sharp increase in their power consumption and heat generation. New heat dissipation solutions have attracted much attention in the industry.

Strength Competition

Currently, the competition in heat dissipation of smartphones has become fierce.

Among the 5G mobile phones released in the first quarter of this year, flagship models such as Huawei P40, Xiaomi 10, vivo Z6, and Red Magic 5G have undergone multi-angle upgrades in the cooling system, presenting an endless stream of design patterns.

To improve heat dissipation efficiency, each terminal manufacturer has its own "magic weapon", from Huawei P40's 3D graphene heat dissipation film + ultra-thin heat pipe liquid cooling technology, to Xiaomi 10's 3000mm² VC heat spreader plus 6 layers of graphite sheets, to vivo Z6's 85mm ultra-long liquid cooling heat pipe and 10000mm² multi-layer graphite heat sink structure, and Red Magic 5G's north-south transparent new air duct design + 15000 rpm high-efficiency centrifugal fan + high-performance thermal conductive gel, etc.

It can be seen that in the development in recent years, the cooling technology of smartphones has been constantly changing, from graphite cooling, metal back panel, frame cooling, thermal conductive gel cooling to heat pipe cooling, and then to heat spreader cooling, and diversified cooling solutions have emerged.

According to Jiwei.com, among various cooling solutions, most 5G flagship models use VC liquid cooling or heat pipe liquid cooling. Currently, Huawei Mate 20 X, Samsung Note 10, Xiaomi 10 and other models are representatives equipped with vapor chambers.

Among them, Huawei prefers the combination of VC liquid cooling technology and graphene film. According to Huawei officials, the application of the combined cooling solution of graphene film + VC liquid cooling cold plate has increased the heat dissipation capacity of Huawei Mate 20 X by about 50% compared with the previous generation Mate 10, and the temperature of the heat concentration point has dropped by more than 3 degrees compared with the previous generation.

"From the perspective of heat dissipation performance, multi-layer graphite sheets were the mainstream heat dissipation method before, and then heat pipes became popular due to their high flexibility and long service life. The heat spreader has a performance that is 15%-30% higher than that of heat pipes, making it a more mainstream heat dissipation solution in the 5G mobile phone era." An industry insider told Jiwei.com.

In addition, data shows that the price of graphite sheets has increased from 3-6 sheets to more than 6 sheets, and from 1 USD to 2-3 USD; while the amount of heat pipes/VC used remains unchanged, the price has increased from 0.3-0.6 USD to 2-3 USD. As the power of 5G chips has increased significantly, the power consumption of equipment has increased significantly, and traditional graphite sheets are difficult to solve the heat dissipation problem. Under the dual demands of cost control and performance optimization, the demand for heat dissipation materials such as heat pipes and VC heat spreaders has increased significantly.

Coming soon

It is well known in the industry that traditional mobile phone heat dissipation materials are mainly graphite sheets and thermal conductive gels, but graphite sheets have relatively low thermal conductivity and TIM materials have large thickness. Under the demand of mobile phone brand manufacturers, graphene materials continue to make breakthroughs, and heat pipes and VC heat spreaders are gradually penetrating into smartphones, especially 5G phones.

Although the current proportion of mobile phone heat dissipation is relatively low, benefiting from the continuous upgrading of 5G smart terminals, the mobile phone heat dissipation market has shown a trend of concentration of leading heat dissipation module manufacturers. Taiwanese manufacturers such as Sunho, Chaozhong, and Taishuo have strong strength, and their heat sinks occupy 70% of the global market share.

While leading manufacturers are gathering together, based on the synergy effect of supply and demand, heat sinks have spread from the Taiwan supply chain market to the mainland market. The layout of mainland heat dissipation material manufacturers has shown results, and they are trying to get a share of this field.

According to incomplete statistics from Jiwei.com, mainland manufacturers such as Tanyuan Technology, Zhongshi Technology, and Feirongda have all entered the supply chain systems of Huawei, Samsung and other companies. In the field of heat pipes and heat spreader related products, they have also completed sample delivery and customer certification and have a certain mass production capacity.

According to Flyonda's 2019 annual report, the revenue from thermal conductive materials and devices was 534 million yuan, accounting for 20.42% of the total revenue, a year-on-year increase of 199.18%; the gross profit margin was 24.29%, a year-on-year decrease of 0.85%. In the second half of last year, Flyonda supplied graphite sheets and other products to Samsung, which was also an important factor in its performance growth.

At the same time, Feirongda stated in its annual report that its VC heat spreader has passed product certifications from several well-known companies and has the capacity for mass production; its fans and cooling modules have obtained customer supply qualifications.

In its 2019 annual report, Zhongshi Technology disclosed that its revenue from thermal conductive materials was RMB 707 million, accounting for 91.07% of its total revenue, a year-on-year increase of 4.31%; its gross profit margin was 33.74%, a year-on-year decrease of 1.38%. Its holding subsidiary Zhongshi Kulojie's heat pipe revenue continued to grow, and the research and development of mobile phone heat spreaders made substantial breakthroughs, completing the preliminary preparations for the mass delivery of mobile phone heat pipes and heat spreaders.

In its 2019 annual report, Tanyuan Technology disclosed that its revenue from heat dissipation materials was 523 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.7%; its gross profit margin was 20.01%, a year-on-year decrease of 3.35%. Regarding the decline in gross profit margin, Tanyuan Technology stated that the consumer electronics industry is constantly innovating and developing, the market competition is fierce, and product revenue and costs are affected by product structure and technological transformation, and there are certain fluctuations.

In addition, Tanyuan Technology will form a product portfolio with high thermal conductivity graphite film, ultra-thin heat pipes and ultra-thin heat spreaders to provide a complete set of heat dissipation solutions for terminals and consolidate its leading position in the heat dissipation field.

Jiwei.com also previously reported that since the end of last year, the above three manufacturers have increased their R&D investment in the field of heat spreaders, including Flyda's "5G communication device industrialization project", Zhongshi Technology's 5G-related product expansion, and Carbon Yuan Technology's heat pipe and heat spreader factory completion and production. This series of layouts are paving the way for deepening the development of the heat spreader market.

At the same time, industry insiders analyzed that in addition to 5G smartphones, heat sinks have been widely used in the heat dissipation of high-power devices such as CPUs, NPs, and ASICs, and it is expected that mainland heat dissipation manufacturers will have a share of the pie.