2023-04-25

PCB is the core component of electronic products, ranging from watches to automobiles, any electronic product, large or small, will be loaded with sophisticated PCB boards. This huge industry spawned by electronic products connects many subdivided industries in the upstream, midstream and downstream. The upstream industry of PCB is mainly the R&D and production of raw materials such as copper foil, resin, glass fiber cloth, ink, etc. The midstream industry is mainly copper clad laminates, and the downstream is the application of PCB products.

In 2022, the following factors will lead to major changes in the PCB upstream, midstream and downstream industries.

The construction of 5G base stations began in 2018, and the construction accelerated from 2019 to 2020, and this year will reach a construction climax. On February 28, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office that more than 600,000 5G base stations will be built in 2022, and the total number of base stations will reach 2 million yuan by the end of 2022. From the start of construction in 2018 to the end of 2021, a total of 142.5 will be built, and more than 600,000 are planned to be built in 2022, up to 42.11% of the total number of construction in the four years, and the total number of construction will hit a record high.

5G communication has the characteristics of high speed, high frequency, large capacity, low latency and high reliability, which will force the current circuit boards to make changes. Mid-to-low-end circuit boards will no longer be applicable, and circuit board suppliers are required to upgrade their products to produce printed circuit boards that can meet the above 5G communication requirements.

During the climax of 5G base station construction, the accompanying demand for PCB HD boards for 5G communications will be significantly greater than in the past few years. The impact of this large demand will lead to drastic changes in the PCB industry chain.

The first is the copper foil upstream of the PCB. Its materials need to be further upgraded to meet the high-frequency and high-speed requirements of 5G, which will push the electronic circuit copper foil to change in the direction of high performance. The copper foil produced by domestic enterprises is mainly based on conventional products, and high-performance electronic circuit copper foil also relies heavily on imports, which will prompt major changes in the expansion project of copper foil this year, and enterprises may shift their focus to high-performance electronic circuits. The expansion direction of copper foil and lithium battery copper foil production capacity.

In addition to copper foil materials, other sheet resins, glass fiber cloth, and copper clad laminates also need to be upgraded in product technology. At present, Chaohua Technology, Shengyi Technology, Honghe Technology and other material manufacturers have already deployed high-frequency and high-speed materials.

The production of circuit boards will change in the direction of high multi-layer, high precision and high density. In addition to relying on the help of high-frequency and high-speed materials upstream, it is also necessary to further improve the production process of circuit boards, which also puts forward more requirements for PCB special equipment. high demands.

At present, sophisticated pattern transfer and vacuum etching equipment, detection equipment for line width and coupling spacing that monitors and feedback data changes in real time, electroplating equipment with good uniformity, and high-precision lamination equipment can meet the production needs of 5G high-end circuit boards. In 2022, the demand for equipment for 5G PCB boards will increase significantly, and well-known domestic manufacturers of PCB-specific equipment will likely start a new round of equipment expansion. Under the circumstance that the domestic equipment production capacity cannot be satisfied, there may be a surge in enterprises to introduce a large number of foreign advanced 5G circuit board special equipment. Shenlian Circuit HDI Board Factory invested 3 billion to introduce advanced equipment to produce high-quality PCB, HDI, Rigid-Flex PCB, and FPC products, providing customers with one-stop service.

2022 is a year of major changes in the printed circuit board industry. The climax of 5G base station construction alone will lead to major changes in the mid-stream and downstream industries of circuit boards. In addition, there are superimposed factors such as new energy vehicles, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, which have spawned the emergence of a new cycle in the PCB industry.