From smart phones to new energy vehicles, from electrical and electronic to high-speed railways, these "signs of the times" that are closely related to people's lives, their core components are inseparable from high-performance copper alloy materials.
On July 26, in the production workshop of SXCL Copper Technology Group, Hay Think's team witnessed the production of smooth and bright copper alloy strips.
The staff took a small piece of copper with dense holes and told us that this is the lead frame material formed by the copper strip after punching. It supports the chip in the integrated circuit, connects to the external circuit, and at the same time drains the heat generated when the chip is working.
With the continuous upgrading of domestic chip technology and increasing demand in the past two years, the market demand for matching lead frame materials has also increased sharply. In particular, various electronic products represented by smart phones are developing towards lightness, thinness, and multi-function. How to improve product accuracy, improve surface quality, and improve product skills, so that they can connect more circuits and load more in a limited area? More chips have become the main goal of the company's R&D team.
At present, the lead width of the etched lead frame developed by SXCL is one-fifth of the common lead frame, the lead spacing is one-half to one-third of the common lead frame spacing, and the number of interfaces with the peripheral circuit is the common lead Four times the frame. It has better precision and stronger functionality. As far as the basic materials carrying mobile phone chips are concerned, it is necessary to be small and light, but also to have various functions. Every detail needs to be carefully designed and repeatedly "polished". After the unremitting efforts of the SXCL R&D team, in early 2018, the fully etched lead frame material successfully passed the product appraisal and officially began commercial production.
The chip-mounted frame materials developed by SXCL have a wide range of application scenarios. In addition to mobile phones and home appliances, they will also be applied in 5G communications, new energy vehicles, smart homes, home appliances, and medical treatment. The market prospects are very broad.
SXCL focuses on the processing of copper alloy sheets and strips, focusing on the development of copper alloy frame materials for VLSI and high-performance and high-precision copper alloy strips, and is committed to building a "professional production base for lead frames and high-performance and high-precision copper alloy strips."
At present, several series of hundreds of copper and copper alloy strip products with different specifications, different models and different states have been formed. In addition to high-precision lead frame copper alloy strips, there are also high-end connectors, high-performance copper alloy strips for LEDs and other products, which can meet the requirements of different fields such as electronics, electrical, communications, high-speed rail, and new energy vehicles. The company's newly built 50,000-ton high-precision copper strip production line project is a provincial-level key project.
Innovation is an inexhaustible driving force for development. In order to achieve rapid development, SXCL pays special attention to technological innovation. In 2020, the company's copper-nickel-silicon copper strip project for connectors was rated as a municipal-level "major new product to fill the gap", and the copper-nickel-tin (TKA) development project was rated as "a hundred technological innovation projects in provincial key industries".
In 2021, the company has formulated 21 scientific and technological innovation projects, and implemented scientific and technological innovation projects such as research on processing technology of low residual stress copper alloy strips, and development of high-end LED high-surface C19400 copper strip products. In terms of new product development, they closely focus on the improvement of TKA ingot quality and the improvement of high-precision strip micro-surface roughness. By optimizing the casting process and controlling the temperature difference between north and south of the heating furnace, the trial production effect of new products has been continuously improved.