LCP material has high temperature resistance, high strength mechanical properties, superior electrical properties and processing properties. LCP: Liquid Crystal Polymer is a new type of high-performance special engineering plastics that was first developed by DuPont in the United States in the early 1980s. Its mechanical properties, dimensional stability, optical properties, electrical properties, chemical resistance, flame retardancy, good processability, good heat resistance, and low thermal expansion coefficient. Under certain conditions, the LCP material can exist as a liquid crystal phase. It has both liquid fluidity and crystal anisotropy, and the shape after cooling and solidification can be maintained stably.
Classification standard of LCP products
The classification methods of LCP are different:
(1) According to the different synthetic monomers, it can be divided into type I, type II and type III
(2) According to the conditions of forming the liquid crystal phase, it can be divided into lyotropic liquid crystal (LLCP) and thermotropic liquid crystal (TLCP). Although the industrialization time of TLCP is later than that of LLCP, due to its excellent molding and processing performance, the development momentum is very rapid, and new varieties continue to appear, far exceeding LLCP.
(3) LCP products can be divided into main chain liquid crystal polymer, side chain liquid crystal polymer and composite liquid crystal polymerization according to the position of the liquid crystal cell in the polymer molecule.
(4) According to the application classification, it can be divided into film level, injection molding level and fiber level.
LCP downstream applications
LCP has a wide range of traditional applications. Among them, LCP, as an engineering plastic, can be used for connectors in electronic devices such as mobile phones and computers, automobile headlight shells, high-temperature bakeware and cake molds; as fibers, it can be used for spacecraft airbags, tire reinforcements, and anti-aircraft Cut gloves and optical fibers; alloys can be used for corrosion-resistant chemical pumps, automobile brake pads, and high-end audio pickups.
The early application of LCP materials was relatively single, and they were basically industrial applications. Later, with the development of science and technology, they gradually expanded, and the application fields covered such as single electrical appliances (high-density connectors, coil formers, spools, substrate carriers, capacitor shells); automotive industry ( Automobile combustion system components, combustion pumps, heat insulation components, precision components, electronic components, etc.); aerospace (radar antenna shields, high temperature and radiation resistant shells, etc.) and many other fields. Among them, electronic appliances are still the most advanced LCP materials. In the main application areas, its application accounted for as high as 73%, the traditional industrial and consumer areas gradually reduced to about 7%, and the automotive and medical fields accounted for 4% and 3% respectively.
In the 5G era, LCP is expected to replace PI as the core material for antennas in the 5G era. The dielectric constant Dk of LCP is between 2.9-3.1, which can be kept constant in almost the entire radio frequency range, and its transmission loss can reach one-tenth of PI, which can effectively reduce signal loss and improve communication quality. In addition, the flexibility of LCP is better than PI, and the thickness can be reduced to 65% of traditional antenna, which can improve the space utilization efficiency of mobile phone and base station antenna. Therefore, LCP is expected to replace PI as an important base material in antenna PFC soft boards in the 5G era, and the LCP market will usher in rapid growth.
Application of LCP on antenna film and market space measurement
Before 2016, global smartphone shipments showed a rapid upward trend due to hardware updates and the popularization of 3G and 4G eras. Global smartphone shipments increased from 173 million units in 2009 to 14.7 in 7 years. 100 million units and reached the peak level in recent years, with a growth rate of 850%. Since 2016, the 4G penetration rate has reached a high level, and the new models of major mobile phone manufacturers lack bright spots, and mobile phone users' desire for replacement is not high. Smartphone shipments tend to flatten out. Shipments in 2019 were 1.486 billion. In the future, with the gradual maturity of 5G technology, the sales structure of global smartphones will be changed again, and mobile phone shipments are expected to re-enter a period of rapid growth. According to IDC data forecast, global mobile phone shipments are expected to reach 1.6 billion units in 2023.
The high-frequency signal transmission method in the 5G era has greatly increased the requirements for antenna materials at the receiving end. The information propagation rate of 5G is 1Gb/s, and its propagation speed is more than 10 times that of 4G. In order to ensure more efficient information transmission efficiency, this requires better spectrum bandwidth. The information dissemination of wireless communication mainly uses electromagnetic waves. Traditional 3G and 4G use 6GHz mid-to-low range electromagnetic waves. Low-frequency electromagnetic waves travel farther in the higher frequency bands. However, the spectrum resources below 6GHz are very scarce and difficult to be effective. To meet the needs of high-speed transmission in the 5G era. The millimeter wave high frequency band can not only improve the utilization efficiency of the low and medium spectrum, but also carry out the layout of the high frequency field, thus becoming the main choice of 5G technology. Unlike 3G and 4G technologies, which are only technical upgrades in the low-frequency field, the reduction of the antenna length used by 5G to millimeter level is a huge technological change, and the antenna product carrier needs to be re-selected. And in the early days of the 5G era, products in the transition phase not only need to meet the needs of 5G transmission, but also need to be able to receive 3G and 4G signals. At the same time, lighter, thinner and easier to carry is an unchangeable direction for the development of smart phones, so antennas The reserved space is extremely limited. In the early days of the 5G era, on the one hand, it was necessary to meet the special requirements for antenna materials and on the other hand to control the space occupied by the antenna. Compared with traditional PI and MPI materials, LCP has stronger signal transmission advantages. We believe that the future Both the base station and mobile phones will significantly increase the use of LCP materials.
The LCP market capacity in 2019 is approximately 2.043 billion. The application rate of LCP film in mobile phones was 9% in 2018 and gradually increased to 10% in 2019. The penetration rate of LCP materials on mobile phones is expected to continue to increase, and the application level may reach 80% in the long term. With the technological precipitation of 5G mobile phone technology and the gradual promotion of products, with the dual benefits of product export rate and LCP material permeability, the demand for LCP antennas will enter the explosive phase in recent years, and drive the demand for the use of front-end LCP film resin. If the penetration rate of 5G mobile phones is the same as that of 4G mobile phones in the future, reaching 80% of the market penetration rate, and the penetration rate of LCP film in the 5G mobile phone segment also reaches 80%, the demand for LCP materials may reach 3000 tons, and a market of nearly 10 billion will be formed space.