Performance enhancement research for printed circuit board manufacture in China

Due to the rapid development of printed circuit board (PCB) industry during the 1990s and 2000s, China has become the largest PCB manufacturing country in the world. However, in terms of advanced PCB products on behalf of industry and technology trends, for example high density interconnect (HDI) and flexible printed circuit (FPC) boards, Chinese PCB manufacturers still lag behind both in technical level and production capacity, compared with America, Japan, etc. Therefore, in recent years Chinese universities, institutes and PCB manufacturers have conducted much basic research on high-end PCB technology, including how to improve the performance of PCB. In this paper, a concise survey about the development of China PCB industry is given at first, followed by technical problems that China has to overcome to continue her leadership in PCB industry. Then, some typical basic research results achieved in recent years in China towards solving the technical challenges are introduced. The research results include methods of analysis and solution of the signal/power integrity (SI/PI) and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) problems, and approaches of electro-thermal modeling, analysis and co-design, all for performance enhancement or improvement of PCB. At last, some discussion about the future research program and activities in China is presented.