The PCB circuit board industry will embrace new changes and make efforts

The PCB circuit board industry will embrace new changes and focus on the fields of automotive electronics and artificial intelligence

 
In recent years, with the development of big data and the extension and penetration of technological fields, many seemingly unrelated industries have become increasingly interconnected. In the era of big data, the PCB circuit board industry is also extending to more fields and industries. In order to enhance the awareness of industry personnel, a forum hosted by HKPCA and co organized by PCB Information Network with the theme of "The Impact of the Development of Automotive Electronics and Cognitive Intelligent Computing on PCB" was held in the Florence Hall of the Venice Hotel in Shenzhen. The conference invited Bosch project manager Tan Shaolian and current IBM Global PCB Committee Director Lu Binyi to give keynote speeches, attracting nearly 90 PCB industry elites to participate.

1. Future trends in automotive electronics and demand for the PCB industry

Firstly, Mr. Tan Shaolian will give a lecture on the requirements and trends of automotive electronics for circuit boards. With his rich industry experience and keen observation, Tan Shaolian proposed that automotive electronics has always been seeking more technological processes that are in line with the characteristics of the times in the fields of power, safety, and comfort. But with energy shortages, climate change, and various uncertain fluctuations related to automotive electronics. Environmental protection and globalization have become two major trends in the development of automotive electronics. Under these two major trends, there are issues related to energy conservation and emission reduction, energy recovery, functional integration of related automotive products, and cost control. Based on how to better adapt to the development of these two trends, Tan Shaolian believes that there should be the following requirements for the PCB industry.

Firstly, in terms of current requirements, automotive electronic circuit boards can reach a level of 1.5A/m3 based on existing technology. However, with the application of thick copper technology on circuit boards and the possibility of embedding chips into circuit boards and selective electroplating in the future, there are also higher requirements for the maximum rated current.

Secondly, in terms of voltage requirements, the development of automotive electronic functions requires to a certain extent a higher rated voltage to match the overall development needs. And what the circuit board needs to consider is how to dissipate heat at such a high voltage. Therefore, the future development of automotive electronic circuit boards may focus more on the materials of circuit boards and actively respond to the demand for innovative development.

Thirdly, with the integration of active and passive components and the technical requirements of multi chip solutions, there is also an increasing demand for miniaturization of automotive electronic components. This requires the circuit board industry to continuously improve the technology of limiting components to circuit boards, in order to meet the development needs of automotive electronics.

In addition, when it comes to the requirements for PCB suppliers, Tan Shaolian believes that suppliers should understand the impact of failure mechanisms caused by interaction in the supply chain, and design to improve the load capacity of functional parts, continuing to make efforts to adjust the PCB supply chain to zero errors.

2. The transformation of manufacturing models and the demand for PCBs under the development of cognitive intelligent computing
Artificial intelligence has a development history of 60 years, and with the emergence of Industry 4.0 and big data, a new generation of intelligent revolution is about to emerge. The manufacturing industry has also transitioned from the Industry 3.0 era to the Industry 4.0 era. Regarding this, guest speaker Mr. Lu Binyi delivered a speech titled "The Opportunities and Challenges of Cognitive Intelligence Computing for PCB". Lu Binyi mentioned that due to the transformation of the manufacturing industry model, it requires supercomputers and IT equipment to be smarter and faster in serving humanity, with more data and intelligent analysis functions, which to some extent has a greater demand for PCB technology and quantity. Therefore, for the PCB industry, whether it is from the front-end (smartphones, tablets, etc.), the mid-range (routers, base stations, etc.), or even the back-end (supercomputers), it should keep up with the pace of Industry 4.0 and accelerate the research and innovation of related technologies. According to IBM's report on PCB shipments from various countries, it can be seen that currently, China's PCB shipments in the middle and low end are leading in the world, while the shipments of high-end PCB products are concentrated in countries such as Japan and South Korea. This means that there is another way for Chinese PCBs to transition from mid to low-end to high-end products. And this approach, specifically to expanding production capacity for software and hardware versions and IC carrier boards, increasing talent training, expanding more free commercial information platforms, as well as PCB social assistance and interconnection platforms, may help China's circuit boards reach new heights of influence.