Kuraray has started to expand its business and will further develop the liquid crystal polymer (LCP) film "Vexter" business. Although the company is currently only supplying thin film products, it has been disclosed that Kuraray has introduced mass production testing equipment for flexible copper-clad laminates at the Kashima Business Office (Kamisu, Ibaraki Prefecture), and has started supplying laminate products.
With the launch of the new base and Kuraray's existing Saijo plant (Saijo City, Ehime Prefecture), the company expects that by the second half of 2020, the output of LCP film "Vexter" will reach 1.8 million square meters per year, Kuraray said, LCP is the key material of the fifth generation communication (5G), so it has received a lot of attention, and the company will also meet the various needs of customers in this area.
The film chain noted that in October 2018, Kuraray set a large-scale mass production of a "flexible printed circuit board (FPC) liquid crystal polymer (LCP) film production line for high-speed transmission" by 2020. This shows that the company attaches importance to the 5G market.
"Vexter FCCL"
Polyimide (PI) substrates used in previous flexible substrates are mainly polyimide (PI). However, due to the large dielectric constant and loss factor, high moisture absorption, and poor reliability of PI substrates, Serious high-frequency transmission loss and poor structural characteristics can no longer adapt to the current high-frequency high-speed trend.
There are two kinds of materials now appearing in front of people-LCP and modified PI, and many people in the industry believe that LCP is the development trend of the future 5G trend. Modified PI is only a 5G Sub-6GHz transition technology and cannot completely replace LCP. .
For applications above 15GHz or complex flexible boards with more than 4 layers, LCP is a better choice. And its loss value is only 2% -4%, compared with the traditional substrate 2% electromagnetic loss is 10 times smaller.
LCP / modified PI has lower loss than traditional PI soft board
In terms of space utilization, both LCP flexible board and modified PI flexible board have better space utilization efficiency and bending reliability than PI flexible board. Murata's LCP flexible board products can perfectly fit the battery for wiring. To save more space.
Not only Kuraray, many companies have recently said they will join the LCP industry.
In March this year, Taihong said that the company's modified PI products were ready for mass production, but they did not give up the development of LCP high-frequency antenna materials.
In May, the Japanese company Kyodo Chemicals Co., Ltd. also revealed that the company's production equipment for liquid crystal polymer (LCP) films and other products have been started at the Tomioka plant at the end of December 2018. Due to mass production, the price of this product Will be reduced to about three times the current mainstream polyimide film.
Kyodo Chemicals invested about 80 million yen (approximately 50.153 million yuan) in the Tomioka plant and introduced equipment such as a continuous firing furnace. The products will be processed into double-layer copper-clad laminates and supplied to the market. The monthly production capacity is planned to be 30,000 to 100,000 square meters. At the same time, the company said that if the demand further increases, they will consider outsourcing to other companies.
At the same time, Sumitomo Chemical also stated that they will gradually expand the use of LCP, and plan to use LCP to develop markets for smart phones suitable for 5G communications, multi-layer flexible printed circuit boards (FPCs) related to base stations, and rigid substrates. In addition, Sumitomo Chemical is also concerned about the market demand for LCP in electric vehicle (EV) applications.
Toray chose another way. Not long ago, Toray announced on the official website that they developed a PI (polyimide) material suitable for 5G communications, which can be widely used for high-speed transmission of large amounts of data. Stable communication technology and millimeter-wave radar electronics for automated operation. According to the company, through precise molecular design, they have met the conditions of low dielectric loss, and the power loss has been suppressed to 0.001 (20GHz).
Of course, facing the competition of various materials at this stage, the mainstream of 5G materials in the future still needs further verification by the market.