In-depth analysis of development opportunities in the PCB circuit board industry under the background of 5G
In-depth analysis of development opportunities in the PCB circuit board industry under the background of 5G
During the 5G era, applications such as communication base stations and smart terminals will expand the high-frequency PCB board market, and mid-to-high-end PCB products are expected to successfully achieve both volume and price increases.
The 5G era is coming
The development of 5G has not encountered difficulties, and the communication reputation PCB needs to explode. As my country's 5G trial spectrum plan has fallen to the ground, major facilities and operators' base station construction acquisition and purchase plans have progressed to the next stage.
The spectrum of the three major operators is clearly distinguished, and each has its own unique style. From the confirmed 5G spectrum separation plan, China Telecom and China Unicom mainly allocate resources near the 3.5GHz frequency band. The industry chain of this frequency band is mature, and the 5G deployment is developing rapidly; while China Mobile has obtained 2.6GHz and 4.8~4.9GHz frequency band resources .
For the 2.6GHz frequency band, the market was once worried that the relative unfamiliarity of the industry chain would affect China Mobile's promotion of 5G commercial use. However, as Huawei completed the 5G attempt to test the new air interface of 5G base stations in the low-frequency 2.6GHz frequency band, the downlink efficiency reached 1.8Gbps, which is consistent with the industry. The 5G technology under the mature 3.5GHz band is comparable. Since the 2.6GHz nearby frequency band is part of the 4GLTE network re-cultivation, there is no need to add base station sites for a period of time when the 5G construction starts. Therefore, after the test is successful, China Mobile is looking forward to quickly repairing the 5G construction.
5G construction accelerates the improvement of the communication PCB market and will become the central driving force for the improvement of the PCB industry. In recent years, the consumer electronics and computer industries, which are the driving force for the PCB industry, have tended to reach the highest level. In 2016, the output value of communication PCB boards exceeded the output value of computer PCB boards for the first time, accounting for 26% of the total, becoming the first largest in the PCB industry. Market segments. Communication reputation PCB is by far the largest subdivision of the PCB industry. It is widely used in wireless networks, transmission networks, numerical communications, and fixed-line broadband, involving backplanes, high-speed multilayer boards, high-frequency microwave boards, and multifunctional metals. PCB products such as substrates.
The 5G construction frequency band is high and multi-frequency, and the volume and price of communication PCB boards have risen. For 5G construction, the base station will take the lead for a period of time, and the communication PCB related to the base station needs to explode first. In the future, due to the increase in the speed of information transmission during the 5G period, the downstream Internet of Things, consumer electronics and other network traffic has exploded. Compared with 4G, the volume of the 5G network has increased significantly, and the communication PCB needs to be increased.
MassiveMIMO technology is applied to 5G base stations, and the software and hardware architecture of 5G base stations have shown significant changes. The 5G base station structure splits the BBU in the 4G base station into a CU-DU secondary structure, where the DU is the dissemination unit and the CU is the central unit, with non-real-time wireless high-level protocol processing functions. The combination of RRU and receiving antenna is directly integrated into AAU in the 5G period. Its digital interface independently controls each receiving antenna element and becomes an active receiving antenna array. In response to the aforementioned structural changes, the base station radio frequency materials have undergone surface changes:
1) 5G puts forward higher requirements for the integration of the receiving antenna system. AAU radio frequency boards need to integrate more components in a smaller size. At the same time, in order to satisfy the need for isolation, the application of high-layer PCB technology is a relatively mature solution in this situation; because of this, the need for high-layer PCB boards in the AAU unit will be greatly increased during the construction of 5G base stations for a period of time. Rise.
2) The office frequency band of 5G is higher, and the transmit power is significantly higher than that of 4G. The high frequency band means higher requirements for the transmission damage and heat dissipation performance of the upstream copper clad sheet material of the PCB, and higher material requirements, and the communication reputation of the PCB sheet material is progressing towards high frequency.
3) The PCB consumption of a single station has been greatly increased, and the density of 5G base stations has been higher. The application of MassiveMIMO has brought about a substantial increase in the number of components, and the corresponding PCB application plane or surface size has increased. The PCB consumption of a single base station AAU is expected to reach 4000 square centimeters, and the total consumption of high-frequency PCB materials for a single base station may reach 8000 square centimeters. After the 5G use signal transmission frequency band increases, the band penetration is reduced, and more media base stations are required to implement signal transmission and transmission. The density of 5G macro base stations is expected to reach 1.5 times that of the 4G period. The total number of base stations is expected to be successfully realized. The break, the need to drive communication PCB sheets has risen.
The difficulty of the manufacturing process used for high-frequency and high-speed PCB (oneseine) has increased. Corresponding to the unique place of 5G multi-channel, large value, and extremely low latency, it has experience in BBU (CU/DU) disposal and puts forward higher requirements. Larger traffic requires the receiving antenna to have 64, 128 or even 256 channels. Compared with the BBU numerical processing of the sub-base station, the experience puts forward higher requirements. The amount of high-speed PCB(oneseine.com) is significantly higher than that of 4G. AAU also requires high-speed PCBs for applications in the 5G era. However, because of the uniqueness of AAU, the number of PCB(oneseine.com) layers used by the BBU is higher, and the size of the plane or surface of the object is larger.
In the mobile base station, the backplane is the circuit board with the largest size of the plane or the surface of the object in the mobile base station. The backplane is the central component of the electronic system. It bears the function of signing and supporting each functional board, and successfully realizes each sub-board. The transmission of the signal. In the 5G era, the development direction of the backplane is the continuous increase in the number of carrier daughter boards and the continuous reduction in signal loss.
With the increase in the proportion of multi-layer boards and the shift of base materials to high-frequency materials, the average price of a single base station PCB(oneseine.com) is expected to increase. 5G has higher requirements for the integration of the receiving antenna system, and multi-layer PCBs should be used as appropriate. According to Pris Mark, the use of PCBs with more than 4 layers in communication facilities accounts for more than 70% of the total, and there are 8-16 layers. 35.2 one hundred percent. 5G must meet the standards of high efficiency, multi-channel, and large volume. The numerical link will be more complex, the I/O (input/output) volume will be larger, and the backplane will have a higher number of layers, super large size, super thick, super porous number. And ultra-high reliability, the degree of process difficulty far exceeds 4G. The central process of high-speed board processing is lamination, drilling, electroplating and other links. More complex processes will increase the incidental value of PCB processing. In addition, the base material needs to use high-speed and high-frequency materials, and the price will be 3 to 5 times that of the original materials.
The size and layer of the 5G base station carrying PCB plane or the surface of the object has increased, and the communication PCB is expected to usher in a new round of high improvement. With the significant increase in the value of 5G transmission, there are more experience and higher requirements for the numerical processing of the base station BBU. The BBU will consider it appropriate and use a larger plane or surface size, and a higher number of PCBs; AAU will also integrate MassiveMIMO technology. There will be a significant increase in the number of receiving antennas in a single station. The number of receiving antennas is expected to be 6-12 per station, each with about 150 PCBs. The size of the single PCB plane or surface of the object will also increase due to the 5G communication frequency band. The rise has risen from 0.0015 square meters in the 4G period to about 0.0035 square meters; besides, AAU needs to integrate more components in a smaller size, which promotes high-layer PCB and high-frequency and high-speed PCB, base station RF PCB The consumption per station is 3.15~6.30 square meters per station. The unit price of high frequency and high speed PCB is at least 1.5 times that of 4G for a period of time.
The PCB for communication (base station) needs the fastest growth. At the beginning of the 2.6GHz 5G construction where China Mobile exists, the increase in PCB(oneseine) value is mainly due to the increase in the ASP of base station PCBs. The number of base stations will not increase much. The group construction of syllables may be mainly caused by China Telecom and China. Unicom contribution. With reference to the total construction scale of 4G base stations, it is counted at about 4 million stations. We conservatively estimate that the total construction of 5G macro base stations is expected to be on par with 4G base stations in 2025. Refer to the construction syllables in the first year of 4G and make certain adjustments. It is expected in 2019 The total construction of 5G macro base stations in China is about 120,000.
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