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High-frequency High-speed Resins "Target" 6G

New Chemical Materials 2025-03-04 10:40:07

The capacity scale of China's basic copper clad laminate (CCL) industry has occupied more than 70% of the global total capacity, establishing its position as the world's largest CCL production base. With the rapid increase in computing power demands from areas such as large-scale artificial intelligence model training, edge computing, and intelligent driving, the iteration speed of hardware performance has significantly accelerated. This has placed more stringent requirements on the dielectric properties and signal transmission efficiency of printed circuit boards (PCBs). To meet these demands, high-performance CCLs, as a key hardware carrier, must be capable of handling high input/output (I/O) workloads.

Given this, domestic related enterprises are accelerating their capacity layout in mid-to-high-end fields (such as high-density interconnect (HDI) boards and integrated circuit (IC) substrates) and actively seeking cooperation with domestic electronic-grade resin suppliers to jointly develop new high-performance material solutions with characteristics such as high frequency, high speed, high heat resistance, high thermal conductivity, and high reliability. In addition, according to the 6G standardization timeline (see Figure 1), downstream end customers have put forward more stringent requirements for high-frequency, high-speed resin materials, such as requiring materials to have low loss (Low loss), low coefficient of thermal expansion (Low CTE), and low modulus (Low modulus) 3L characteristics. These demands are continuously driving the update and iteration of related material technologies.

High-frequency and high-speed resins are a class of materials with excellent electrical properties, characterized by low dielectric constant (Dk) and low dielectric loss (Df), among other features. These characteristics enable them to meet the stringent requirements for high-frequency and high-speed signal transmission, making them indispensable key materials in the manufacture of high-performance PCBs. High-performance PCBs are widely used in various high-tech scenarios such as AI data centers, communication base stations, and smart terminals. From the perspective of chemical structure and group type, high-frequency and high-speed resins can be further categorized into several types, including polyphenylene oxide (PPO), bismaleimide (BMI), hydrocarbon resins, and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). High-frequency and high-speed resins with superior dielectric performance are expected to increasingly replace the traditionally used epoxy resins in PCB manufacturing, becoming the preferred material for server upgrades.

Globally, the main suppliers of high-frequency and high-speed resins are Mitsubishi Gas Chemical, Asahi Kasei, Daikin, KI Chemical, Yamato Kasei, DuPont, SABIC, and others from Japan.

The industrialization process of electronic resins in China started relatively late. Currently, the supply structure is dominated by the capacity for basic liquid epoxy resins. The supply of high-quality specialty electronic resins, especially those that can meet the critical demands of the downstream PCB industry in green environmental protection (such as lead-free and halogen-free), thinness, and high-speed and high-frequency applications, is relatively small. Nevertheless, in the field of high-frequency and high-speed resins, China has already shown a certain production capacity advantage.

Dongcai Technology

Sichuan Dongcai Technology Group Co., Ltd. was founded in 1994, with a focus on new insulation materials, and is dedicated to the development of diversified product series such as optical film materials, electronic materials, and environmentally friendly flame-retardant materials. As of June 2024, Dongcai Technology has successfully established an annual production capacity of 3,700 tons for bismaleimide resin (BMI), ranking first globally in terms of production capacity.

In the field of electronic-grade resin materials, Dongcai Technology, through its independent innovation capabilities, has successfully developed a series of high-performance products including hydrocarbon resins, bismaleimide resins, reactive ester resins, benzoxazine resins, and special epoxy resins. The company has also established stable cooperative relationships with many well-known global copper clad laminate manufacturers. Among these, bismaleimide resins and reactive ester resins, with their superior quality and significant competitive advantages, have successfully entered the supply chains of both domestic and international leading copper clad laminate manufacturers and are widely used in mainstream server systems such as Nvidia, Huawei, Apple, and Intel.

In August 2024, Dongcai Technology announced a major investment decision, which involves its subsidiary, Dongcai Electronic Materials (Meishan) Co., Ltd., investing in the construction of a 20,000-ton annual production project for specialized electronic materials for high-speed communication substrates in Meishan City, Sichuan Province, with an estimated total investment of 700 million yuan. This project aims to build a product line that includes 5,000 tons/year of low dielectric loss thermosetting polyphenylene ether resin, 2,000 tons/year of non-crystalline bismaleimide resin, 1,500 tons/year of crystalline bismaleimide resin, 4,000 tons/year of low dielectric loss reactive ester curing agent resin, 3,500 tons/year of hydrocarbon resin, and 4,000 tons/year of low dielectric loss phosphorus-containing flame-retardant resin.

In August 2024, Dongcai Technology announced a significant investment decision to invest in the construction of an annual production capacity of 20,000 tons of high-speed communication substrate dedicated electronic materials project through its subsidiary, Dongcai Electronic Materials (Meishan) Co., Ltd., in Meishan City, Sichuan Province, with an expected total investment reaching 700 million yuan. The project aims to build a product line covering electronic-grade low dielectric loss thermosetting polyphenylene ether resin (5,000 tons/year), electronic-grade amorphous maleimide resin (2,000 tons/year), electronic-grade crystalline maleimide resin (1,500 tons/year), electronic-grade low dielectric loss active ester curing agent resin (4,000 tons/year), electronic-grade hydrocarbon resin (3,500 tons/year), and electronic-grade low dielectric loss phosphorus-containing flame retardant resin (4,000 tons/year).

At the same time, Dongcai Technology also announced the termination of the "annual production of 1,000 tons of low dielectric thermosetting polyphenylene ether resin (PPO) production line" within the fundraising investment project "Annual Production of 5,200 Tons of Special Resin Materials for High-Frequency High-Speed Printed Circuit Boards Industrialization Project." The reason for the previous postponement was based on a prudent assessment of the market environment at that time. Although the 3,000 tons/year electronic-grade bismaleimide resin production line and the 1,200 tons/year low dielectric active ester curing agent resin production line from the original project had been successfully put into operation in May 2022, achieving good market response and economic benefits, considering the high concentration of the PPO market and the slow process of domestic substitution, as well as the company's existing supply capacity of 100 tons/year of PPO, Dongcai Technology decided to suspend the construction of the PPO production line.

However, Dongcai Technology has not stopped exploring and improving in the field of PPO. The company actively cooperates with downstream customers, continuously optimizing and upgrading the chemical structure and synthesis process of PPO to meet the performance requirements of higher-grade high-speed communication substrates. Through relentless efforts, the optimized PPO products have successfully gained performance evaluation recognition from downstream customers. On this basis, Dongcai Technology will produce PPO using the new process in the newly added 20,000-ton project and plans to further expand production capacity.

Sacred Spring Group

Since 2005, Sacred Spring Group has entered the field of electronic chemicals. Its current product range includes functional polymer materials such as electronic-grade phenolic resins, special epoxy resins, benzoxazines, and bismaleimide resins. In 2023, Sacred Spring Group successfully achieved mass production of special electronic resins for 5G/6G communication PCB boards, with a new 1,000-ton production line already built and put into operation. The company not only focuses on developing high-frequency, high-speed resins at the M6 and M7 levels but also gradually advances the development and promotion of ultra-low loss materials like M8 and M9. It has launched a 1,000-ton/year maleimide resin project and a 2,000-ton/year hydrocarbon resin project.

Sacred Spring Group also focuses on the domestic substitution of special epoxy resins, such as phenol biphenyl epoxy, crystalline epoxy, DCPD epoxy resin, and special phenoxy resins, which have been successively launched and achieved commercial sales. Currently, the products are mainly used in semiconductor packaging materials, including BT packaging materials and ABF/ACF multilayer insulating films, suitable for advanced packaging processes such as Chiplet, FC-BGA, and HBM. They are primarily applied to Memory, MEMS, RF, ECP embedding technology, and semiconductor packaging for computing chips like CPU, GPU, and FPGA, as well as related underfill adhesives, high-end EMC, Low Dk/Mid-Loss copper clad laminates, and automotive boards.

Hong Chang Electronics

Eternal Materials has developed a variety of high-frequency and high-speed resins, among which polyether resin gained terminal recognition in 2023. Special type resins received four domestic patent authorizations in 2023 and two more in the first half of 2024. The third phase project of Eternal Materials in Zhuhai, with an annual production capacity of 80,000 tons of electronic-grade functional epoxy resins, involves a total investment of 420 million yuan and a construction period of 24 months. The designed production capacity includes 50,000 tons of low-bromine epoxy resin per year, 5,000 tons of high-bromine epoxy resin per year, 4,500 tons of lead-free epoxy resin per year, 10,000 tons of solvent-based epoxy resin per year, 10,000 tons of solid epoxy resin per year, and 500 tons of high-frequency and high-speed resin per year. In September 2023, the project obtained the construction permit, and it is expected to be completed and put into operation by December 2025.

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High-frequency High-speed Resins "Target" 6G

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