Recently, two new multimodal applications in the field of artificial intelligence have attracted widespread attention. Pika and Google's native multimodal large model Gemini continue to rise in popularity and become the focus of global attention.
As artificial intelligence enters the era of large models with huge parameters, the demand for computing power is also increasing. This trend presents a huge business opportunity for the AI chip and server market. Due to the high demand for computing power and servers, the PCB (printed circuit board) industry has also ushered in unprecedented development opportunities.
At present, the PCB output value in Chinese mainland has accounted for more than half of the total global output value, and servers and automobiles are the fastest growing parts of downstream applications. Future Internet of Things, Industry 40. Emerging fields such as cloud servers and storage devices are expected to become new driving forces for the continuous growth of PCB demand.
According to market research firm Prismark**, the total output value of the global PCB industry is expected to reach $75.8 billion by 2024. With the continuous development of artificial intelligence, the prospects of the PCB market are very broad.
Pay attention to Leqing's industry observation and gain insight into industry opportunities!
The printed circuit board (PCB) is the core component of electronic devices and plays a vital role as a connection platform for components.
PCBs are made of high-quality insulation and insulation materials that ensure their strength and durability, making them an indispensable building block for a wide range of electronic devices.
Depending on the number of layers, construction, and production process, PCBs can be divided into six types: rigid single- and double-sided boards, standard multilayer boards, high-density interconnect boards (HDI boards), package substrates (IC substrates), flexible boards, and rigid-flex boards. This classification allows PCBs to meet the different needs of various electronic devices.
Since 2011, with the rapid development of communication electronics, consumer electronics, automotive electronics and computer industries, the market demand for intelligence, thinness, multi-function and high performance has been increasing, which has catalyzed the evolution of PCB products to a higher level. Low-end PCB manufacturers in the industry are facing the dilemma of profit compression, and the trend of industry consolidation is becoming more and more obvious.
The interconnection between the PCB layers is achieved through drilling and plating processes. As electronic devices such as mobile phones and laptops become thinner and more integrated, motherboards are also making progress, pursuing higher hole densities and finer line widths and line spacing. This progress is reflected in the evolution from first-order HDI to second-order HDI, then to fourth-order or higher AnyLayer HDI, and finally to SLP with M-SAP process. In this process, feature sizes continue to shrink and the number of holes increases, making the manufacturing process increasingly challenging.
The upgrade of PCB also promotes the development of signal transmission in the direction of high frequency and high speed, requiring electronic circuit materials to have low dielectric constant and dielectric loss, while also meeting the requirements of low CTE and low water absorption, and requiring higher performance copper clad laminate materials to ensure the manufacturing quality and reliability of high-end boards.
It is important to note that the characteristics of high frequency, high speed, large size and high multilayer cannot be achieved by simply stacking raw materials. According to public information, even in China, the yield rate of manufacturing these high-end PCBs does not reach 95%.
There is a lot of room for growth in mid-to-high-end PCBs
Source**: China Industry Information Network.
The upstream of the PCB industry chain is mainly composed of materials such as copper foil, fiberglass cloth, wood pulp paper and synthetic resin. The midstream includes the production and manufacturing of copper clad laminates and PCBs, among which, copper clad laminates, as the upstream of PCBs, are an important part of PCB raw materials. Downstream PCB products are widely used in communication equipment, semiconductors, computers, automotive electronics, consumer electronics, industrial control, aerospace and data centers and other fields, and their applications are very wide.
Diagram of PCB industry chain:
Source**:p Rismark, CCLA
The electronic resin in the upstream material has a high degree of regular symmetry of molecular structure and low polar group content, which can effectively reduce the loss of copper clad laminate in the process of electrical signal transmission, so as to meet the needs of high-speed and high-frequency communication.
In addition, electronic resins with high purity and low impurities can significantly enhance the insulation properties of copper clad laminates and improve their reliability when exposed to harsh environments such as high temperature and humidity for a long time.
Copper foil is a cathodotic electrolytic material made from copper or copper alloys through processes such as rolling or electrolysis. Its main use is as a conductor of electricity and plays a key role in the production of copper clad laminates (CCLs), printed circuit boards (PCBs) and lithium batteries.
According to different uses, copper foil can be divided into electronic copper foil, lithium battery copper foil and copper foil for electronic shielding.
Standard copper foil is mainly used in the manufacture of copper clad laminates and printed circuit boards, while lithium battery copper foil is mainly used in the production of consumer lithium batteries, power lithium batteries and energy storage lithium batteries.
The production of copper foil has extremely strict requirements for process technology, so the production capacity of high-end copper foil has become an important barrier to competition among enterprises in the industry.
Among the leading domestic manufacturers, Kingboard Copper Foil, Nanya Copper Foil, Tongguan Copper Foil, Longdian Huaxin and Changchun Chemical have PCB copper foil sales of more than 20,000 tons, accounting for 54 percent of the total sales5%。
Overall, due to the continuous prosperity of the new energy and electronics industry and the growing downstream demand, the competition in the domestic copper foil industry is still very fierce.
As the core carrier of PCB, the performance of copper clad laminate is directly restricted by the raw materials used. Especially for high-frequency and high-speed copper clad laminates, the requirements for characteristics such as dielectric constant (DK) and dielectric loss (DF) need to be achieved by optimizing and improving the performance of raw materials.
The manufacture of copper clad laminates involves a variety of raw materials, such as copper foil, electronic cloth, resin, and silicon powder.
Specialty resins are one of the core raw materials to achieve the desired performance of high-frequency and high-speed copper clad laminates. Fillers such as silica powder are added to the resin system to further enhance the performance of copper clad laminates and reduce their manufacturing costs. For higher-end products, the silica powder used will have a smaller particle size and a correspondingly higher filling rate in the resin system.
Classification of special resins for high-frequency and high-speed copper clad laminates and some representative manufacturers:
Source**: Huatai research, line check.
In the competitive landscape of the global PCB market, the leading manufacturers are mainly from Taiwan, Chinese mainland, Japan, the United States and South Korea.
Among them, Chinese mainland manufacturers occupy a clear dominant position in the multi-layer board market.
According to 2022 data, the top five manufacturers (CR5) in China's PCB manufacturing industry account for 339% market share, while the top 10 manufacturers (CR10) have a whopping 5188%。Among them, the market share of five companies, including Pengding Holdings (whose parent company is Taiwan Zhending Technology), Dongshan Precision, Jianding Technology (a Taiwan-funded enterprise), Shennan Circuit, and Huatong Computer (a Taiwan-funded enterprise), respectively. 78% and 444%, ranking among the top five in the market.
In addition, there are some domestic manufacturers that also perform well in the PCB manufacturing industry, such as Kinwong Electronics, Hudian Co., Ltd., AKM Meadville Electronics, Shenghong Technology, Xingsen Technology and Shiyun Circuit.
Competitive landscape of PCB industry in 2022:
Source**: China Electronic Circuit Industry Association.
Under the new wave of AI, domestic manufacturers are actively deploying PCB products related to AI servers.
Domestic PCB manufacturers are accelerating the expansion of high-end products, such as high-multilayer boards and HDI boards, to meet the huge demand brought by the AI wave.
The production of printed circuit boards with these characteristics requires not only deep technical background and equipment investment, but also rich experience of technical team and production team. At the same time, the process of customer certification is strict and complex, so the threshold for entering this field is relatively high, and the time to achieve large-scale industrial production is relatively long. Computing power artificial intelligence puts AI at your fingertips server PCB
High-end PCB production project:
Data**: Company announcements, Zhejiang businessmen**, and line checks.
Among the relevant layout manufacturers, the EGS-level server products of Shanghai Electric Co., Ltd. have achieved large-scale mass production, completed the productization of 4-order HD, and are in the process of pre-research of 6-level HDI products. Victory Giant Technology has successfully developed high-level multi-layer products based on AI servers, and its platform server motherboard has entered the stage of low-volume production, completed the commercialization of Tier 4 HDI products and high-level multi-layer products, and is also accelerating the deployment of Tier 6 HDI products.
In the long run, the next generation of communication printed circuit boards and storage packaging substrates will become a trend, and key areas such as high density, high integration, high speed and high frequency, high heat dissipation, and miniaturization are worth paying attention to. In the context of the outbreak of the global AI wave, PCB, as a key basic element, is expected to usher in high-speed development opportunities.