Sip package ,new opportunity-HOREXS ultra thin PCB manufacturer

Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, VIVO, and Samsung have successively released 5G mobile phones. Sales of 5G mobile phones have exceeded expectations. Millimeter wave 5G mobile phones will increase the demand for SiP; Apple AirPods has added noise reduction functions, and after Applewatch, SiP technology is also adopted.

The thinness and high-performance requirements of mobile phones promote system-level integration: mobile phone users need continuous improvement in performance, increasing functions, and ease of carrying. These two mutually restrictive factors have affected the process of upgrading smartphones in the past decade. Electronic engineering has gradually developed from a single component to integrate multiple components, and then move towards system-level integration to improve performance, save space, and optimize endurance. The electronics manufacturing industry has previously formed three distinct links of wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing, and system assembly. As the integration of consumer electronics products increases, the assembly of some modules and even systems overlaps with the packaging and testing processes. Competition or synergy arises on this.

5G will increase the SiP requirements of mobile phones: The only mobile phones that use SiP on a large scale are the iPhone. 5G mobile phones will integrate more components such as radio frequency front ends. In the 5GSub-6 solution, more advanced double-sided SiP is used. In 5G millimeter wave solutions, AiP modules that integrate array antennas and RF front-ends will become the mainstream technology route. Qualcomm has already commercialized 5G millimeter wave antenna module AiP standard products, and each mobile phone uses three such modules. The performance of the antenna varies greatly due to the design of the mobile phone, the internal space limitation of the mobile phone, and the structure or substrate material next to the antenna. Standardized AiP antenna modules are difficult to meet the different needs of different mobile phone manufacturers. Manufacturers such as Apple are expected to develop their own customized AiP antenna modules based on their mobile phone designs. Only Apple’s AiP demand is expected to reach billions of dollars in three years. In the future, SiP is expected to integrate more components such as basebands to further enhance the integration of mobile phones. Qualcomm has successfully commercialized QSiP modules, placing more than 400 components such as application processors, RF front-ends, and memory in one module, greatly reducing the space requirements of the motherboard. The QSiP process also greatly simplifies the design and manufacturing process of mobile phones, saves costs and development time, and speeds up the commercialization time of the complete machine factory.

Apple wearable products actively use SiP technology: wearable products are IoT products that Apple attaches great importance to, and the sales of AppleWatch and AirPods continue to grow rapidly. AppleWatch has complex functions, and the SiP process has been used since the first generation of products in 2015. Most of the functional devices of its SiP module integrated watch are in a narrow space of 1mm thickness, including: CPU, storage, audio, touch, power management, WiFi, NFC and other more than 30 independent functional components, more than 20 chips, 800 Multiple components. AirPodsPro, released at the end of October, has active noise reduction capabilities, requires the integration of more components, and also uses SiP technology, which is expected to bring billions of dollars in SiP demand. Wearable products have very limited space due to portability and aesthetic considerations, but users have increasingly higher requirements for the richness of wearable product functions, and SiP technology will have a lot to do.

 1. Lightweight and high-performance requirements promote modularization and system-level integration

The thinness and high performance requirements of mobile phones promote system-level integration. Mobile phone users need not only the continuous improvement of mobile phone performance, the continuous increase of functions, but also the convenience of carrying. These two mutually restrictive factors have affected the upgrading process of smart phones in the past 10 years: 1) Thinning. Taking the iPhone as an example, the thickness of the original body is about 12mm to 7.5mm of iPhoneXS, but the thickness of iPhone11 has increased to 8.5mm. 2) Increased functions and improved performance. Mobile phones have gradually added new functions such as multiple cameras, NFC mobile payment, dual card slots, fingerprint recognition, multiple batteries, face unlocking, ToF, etc. The performance of each component has also continued to improve. The expansion and performance improvement of these functions has led to the number of components Increasingly, it takes up more internal space of the mobile phone, and also needs to consume more power. However, the energy density of lithium batteries in mobile phones has been slowly increasing. Therefore, space-saving modularization and system-level integration have become a trend.

Some mobile phone manufacturers have released finished models, but the realization of 5G functions has brought obvious challenges to the "light and thin" appearance of mobile phones, and even the power consumption cannot be underestimated. As early as August 2018, Lenovo has released the 5G mobile phone MOTOZ3, but its 5G function relies on a 5G module mounted on the back of the phone and with a 2000mAh battery. At the end of February this year, Samsung officially released the 5G version of the S10. After a short while, Huawei also officially released the folding screen 5G mobile phone MateX in March. The Huawei MateX was only 5.4mm thick due to the unfolded body. Finally, it could only use Leica triple camera, 5G baseband and 4 Group 5G antennas are placed on the side bulge. Judging from the above several mobile phones, the realization of 5G function still poses obvious challenges to the "light and thin" appearance of mobile phones, and even the power consumption cannot be underestimated.

Function integration forms the two mainstreams of system-on-chip SoC and system-in-package SiP. Both goals are to achieve a high degree of integration of multiple system functions in the same product, where the SoC integrates the functional components required by a system from the perspective of design and manufacturing processes, with the help of traditional Moore's law driven semiconductor chip process technology. From the perspective of packaging and assembly, SiP uses advanced packaging and high-precision SMT technology to integrate several bare chips and micro passive devices manufactured by different integrated circuit processes into the same small substrate and form a system with system functions. Of high-performance micro-components.

Limited by the limit of Moore's Law, the number of components that can be integrated per unit area is getting closer to the physical limit. The SiP packaging technology can achieve a higher degree of integration, and the combined system has better performance, which is an inevitable path beyond Moore's Law.

Compared with SOC, (1) SiP technology is more integrated, but the research and development cycle is shorter. SiP technology can reduce the repeated packaging of chips, reduce the difficulty of layout and wiring, and shorten the development cycle. The 3DSiP package with chip stacking can reduce the usage of PCB board and save internal space. For example: iPhone7PLUS uses about 15 different types of SiP processes to save space inside the phone. The SiP process is suitable for communication and consumer product markets with short update cycles. (2) SiP can solve the problem of heterogeneous (Si, GaAs) integration. Different parts and components of mobile phone radio frequency systems often use different materials and processes, such as silicon, silicon germanium (SiGe) and gallium arsenide (GaAs), and other passive components. The current technology cannot make these parts manufactured by different process technologies on a single silicon single crystal chip. However, using the SiP process can apply surface mount technology SMT to integrate silicon and gallium arsenide bare chips, and can also use embedded passive components to make a high-performance RF system very cost-effectively. The miniaturization of optoelectronic devices, MEMS and other special process devices will also apply SiP technology in large quantities.

In the past few decades, the electronics manufacturing industry has formed three distinct links: wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing, and system assembly. Representative manufacturers are TSMC, ASE and Hon Hai, and their manufacturing accuracy is nanometer, micrometer, and millimeter level. With the improvement of the integration of consumer electronics products, the accuracy requirements for assembly of some modules and even systems are approaching the micron level, which overlaps with the packaging and testing process in the process, and business competition or synergy arises.

Specifically, the SiP process combines the molding and singulation processes in the traditional packaging and testing with the SMT and system test processes in traditional system assembly.

2. 5G will significantly increase the demand for SiP in mobile phones

2.1 5G mobile phones will usher in rapid growth

The commercialization of 5G is approaching, and operators in mainstream countries around the world have made clear the time node. As of October 16, 2019, Huawei has signed more than 60 5G commercial contracts with leading global operators, and more than 400,000 5GMassiveMIMOAAUs have been sent to all parts of the world. From a global perspective, most telecom operators in mainstream countries plan to deploy 5G networks and gradually launch commercial services during 2019-2020. China has also successfully completed the third phase of 5G technology research and development testing in Q3 2019, and officially Entering the 5G product research and development test phase, domestic operators have also officially launched the bidding of 5G-scale networking pilot projects in early 2019.

According to CCS Insight's forecast, in 2019, 5G mobile phone shipments will reach 10 million units, accounting for 0.6% of mobile phone shipments. 2020 will usher in explosive growth to 230 million units, and will exceed 900 million units in 2023 , Accounting for half of mobile phone shipments.

2.2 SiP is increasingly used in 5G mobile phones

Due to historical reasons, the low frequency bands below 3GHz that can be used for public mobile communications have been basically divided by previous generations of communication networks, and the frequency bands are scattered, unable to provide the continuous large bandwidth required by 5G, so 5G will inevitably extend to higher working frequency bands. At present, the world has basically reached a consensus on the 5G spectrum. The 3~6GHz mid-frequency band will become the core working frequency band of 5G, which is mainly used to solve the problem of seamless wide-area coverage. The high-frequency band above 6GHz is mainly used for local supplementation. In better cases, it provides ultra-high data transmission services for users in hotspots. For example, there is a consensus on 26GHz, 28GHz, and 39GHz millimeter wave applications. The 5G frequency band is divided into two parts: Sub-6 and millimeter wave.

5G mobile phones need to integrate more radio frequency devices. The radio frequency module of the mobile phone mainly realizes the reception, processing and transmission of radio waves. The key components include the antenna, the radio frequency front end and the radio frequency chip. Among them, the RF front-end includes antenna switches, low noise amplifiers LNA, filters, duplexers, power amplifiers and many other devices. From a single communication system for functional phones in the 2G era to today's smart phone era compatible with many wireless communication systems such as 2G, 3G, and 4G, the number of components in the radio frequency front end of mobile phones is also increasing, and the performance requirements are getting higher and higher.

The number of radio frequency components required for 5G mobile phones will far exceed the previous generation products, and the structural complexity will be greatly increased. 5G mobile phones need to be forward compatible with 2/3/4G communication standards, and the number of RF front-end modules required for a single device will increase significantly. According to Qorvo's forecast, the amount of radio frequency semiconductors for a single 5G mobile phone will reach US$25, which is nearly doubled compared to 4G mobile phones. Among them, the number of receiver/transmitter filters has increased from 30 to 75, including power amplifiers, radio frequency switches, frequency bands, etc., which have at least doubled in number. The substantial increase in the number of devices will significantly increase the complexity of the structure and increase the level of packaging integration requirements.

The 5G frequency band is divided into two parts: Sub-6 and millimeter wave. The signal performance of the Sub-6 part is similar to that of the LTE signal. The main difference between the RF components is the increase in the number, and the millimeter wave part brings revolutionary changes in the RF structure. . SiP technology will be widely used in 5G mobile phones and play an increasingly important role: 1) First step: 5G needs to be compatible with LTE and other communication technologies, and more RF front-end SiP modules will be needed; 2) Second step: millimeter wave The antenna and the RF front-end form an AiP antenna module; 3) Step 3: The baseband, digital, memory and other components are integrated into a larger SiP module.

Since only a few regions such as South Korea and North America support millimeter wave frequency bands, among the 5G phones released by Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo, only Samsung Galaxy S10 supports 5G millimeter wave signals. As more regions begin to support millimeter wave frequency bands, millimeter wave will become standard for 5G mobile phones.

The continuous upgrading of communication technology promotes the continuous integration of RF-related devices, and the improvement of SiP technology provides technical guarantee for this higher degree of integration. In the 2GGMS era, the RF front-end uses discrete technology, and the antenna is also placed outside the fuselage. Single-sided SiP technology began to be applied in the 3GWCDMA era, the transceiver in the radio frequency front end began to be modularized (FEM), the power amplifier (PA) still existed independently, and the antenna began to be integrated into the chassis. In the 4GLTE era, the number of radio frequency devices has doubled, FEM and PA are further integrated, and antennas have begun to use FPC technology. In the 5GSub-6 stage, there are more than 20 frequency bands, the number of radio frequency devices continues to grow, and more advanced double-sided SiPs are used. In the 5G millimeter wave stage, the wavelength of millimeter waves is extremely short, and the signal is easily attenuated. RF front-end devices such as antennas and PAs need to be as close as possible. AiP modules that integrate array antennas and RF front-ends will become the mainstream technology route.

2.3 5G millimeter wave drives AiP demand

The 5G millimeter wave frequency band requires more RF front-end components; the lossy characteristics of antennas and millimeter-wave high-frequency communications require that the distance between the RF front-end components and the antenna be as short as possible; the size of the millimeter-wave antenna can be reduced to 2.5mm; and shielding is required The effect of antenna's high-frequency radiation on peripheral circuits. The above requirements need to integrate the antenna and the radio frequency device into a module, and the size of the antenna becomes smaller, which provides a guarantee for the feasibility of the module.

Millimeter wave mobile phones require more RF front-ends and antennas: millimeter wave high-frequency communications will need to integrate more than 3 power amplifiers and dozens of filters, compared to covering low-frequency modules, only 1-2 power amplifiers, filters or dual The number of workers has increased significantly. In addition, millimeter wave communication requires smaller and larger antennas. Generally, the antenna length is 1/4 of the radio wavelength, and once the working frequency band above 30GHz is adopted, it means that the wavelength will be less than 10mm, corresponding to the antenna size of 2.5mm, which is less than 1/10 of the 4G era. At the same time, due to the large propagation loss of high-frequency communication and weak coverage, a larger number of antennas will be introduced, and antenna arrays will be formed through MIMO technology to enhance coverage. According to Qrovo's prediction, the number of antennas for a single 5G mobile phone is expected to reach 10-12.

Qualcomm has commercialized the 5G millimeter wave antenna module AiP standard QTM052. Samsung Galaxy S105G millimeter wave version of the mobile phone uses three of these antenna modules, which are placed on the top, left and right sides of the middle frame. Multiple antenna modules can avoid the interference caused by the user's different hand positions.

The performance of the antenna varies greatly due to the design of the mobile phone, the internal space limitation of the mobile phone, and the structure or substrate material next to the antenna. The standardized AiP antenna module is difficult to meet the different needs of different mobile phone manufacturers. Manufacturers such as Apple are expected to develop their own customized AiP antenna modules based on their mobile phone designs. We estimate that only Apple's AiP demand is expected to reach billions of dollars in three years.

2.4 SiP is expected to integrate more components

In the future, SiP is expected to integrate more components such as basebands to further enhance the integration of mobile phones. Qualcomm has successfully commercialized the Qualcomm Snapdragon System-in-Package (QSiP) module. QSiP puts more than 400 components such as application processors, power management, RF front-end, WiFi and other connection chips, audio codecs, and memory into one module. This greatly reduces the space requirements of the motherboard, thereby providing more space for functions such as batteries and cameras. At the same time, the QSiP process greatly simplifies the design and manufacturing process of mobile phones, saves costs and development time, and speeds up the commercialization time of the complete machine factory.

In order to ensure the smooth mass production of QSiP, Qualcomm and USI established a joint venture in February 2018 to use USI and ASE Group's technology accumulation and mass production experience in the SiP field. In March 2019, ASUS released two mobile phones ZenFoneMaxShot and ZenFoneMaxPlusM2 that use QSiP. Judging from the disassembly diagram, QSiP has indeed greatly simplified the circuit design of the mobile phone's motherboard, and reduced the area of the motherboard, leaving more room for new features such as three cameras.

Qualcomm continues to expand its product line to expand the market space. It has expanded from the early baseband and application processor to a rich product line such as radio frequency front-end, power management, Bluetooth, WiFi, and fingerprint recognition. However, many new products lack outstanding features. Competitiveness. Through SiP technology, Qualcomm can bundle some weak chips with chips such as basebands with outstanding advantages, so as to realize the package sales of various chips and expand its market space.

For OEMs, using Qualcomm's QSiP solution can simplify the design and manufacturing process of mobile phones, save costs, shorten development time, and speed up the commercialization time of models. However, because the QSiP solution may reduce the degree of product differentiation, it may be mainly used in non-flagship models in the future, becoming a cost and a weapon to seize market opportunities. However, QSiP is expected to become the driving force behind the large-scale application of SiP in mobile phones, and flagship models are expected to adopt a more customized system-level SiP similar to QSiP.

3. Apple wearable products actively use SiP technology

Wearable products are IoT products that Apple attaches great importance to. Cook believes that the health business based on wearable products will become Apple's greatest contribution to mankind. AppleWatch already has functions such as heart rate and ECG detection. Apple has developed three health-related platforms: ResearchKit, HealthKit, and CareKit, and has also cooperated with Stanford University School of Medicine to promote the integration of wearable products and medical care.

The sales of Apple's AppleWatch and AirPods products continue to grow at a high rate. In the last fiscal year of 2019, Apple's wearable and accessories department revenue has reached 24.5 billion US dollars, an increase of more than 40% year-on-year.

AppleWatch has complex functions and integrates nearly 900 parts in a small space. Since the first generation of products in 2015, the SiP process has been used. The SiP module of AppleWatch integrates most of the functional devices of AppleWatch, including: CPU, storage, audio, touch, power management, WiFi, NFC and other more than 30 independent functional components, more than 20 chips, more than 800 components, thickness Only 1mm.

The ordinary version of AirPods has relatively simple functions. SiP technology was not used in the early days. The AirPodsPro released at the end of October has active noise reduction function, which requires the integration of more components and also uses SiP technology. We estimate that AirPods is expected to bring billions of dollars in SiP demand.

Wearable products have very limited space due to portability and aesthetic considerations, but users have increasingly higher requirements for the richness of wearable product functions, and SiP technology will have a lot to do.

Horexs professional in produce ultra thin FR4 PCB for 10 years in CHINA,Sip package need thin FR4 PCB as carrier board,HOREXS as one of the famous thin FR4 PCB manufacturer in CHINA,Will invest more at the technology and production,Recommend for cooperation for thin FR4 PCB boards.

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