electronics industry
Electronics Industry
The electronics industry is an emerging industry. In its thriving development process, new products and new application areas of steel are constantly being developed. Its application has developed from vacuum devices and printed circuits to microelectronics and semiconductor integrated circuits.
Vacuum devices
Vacuum devices are mainly high-frequency and ultra-high-frequency transmitting tubes, waveguides, magnetrons, etc., which require high-purity oxygen-free copper and dispersion-strengthened oxygen-free copper.
Printed circuits
Copper printed circuits use copper foil as the surface and paste it on a plastic plate as a support; the circuit wiring diagram is printed on the copper plate by photography; the excess parts are removed by etching to leave the interconnected circuits. Then, holes are punched at the connection with the outside of the printed circuit board, and the terminals of the discrete components or other parts are inserted and welded on this opening, so that a complete circuit is assembled. If the immersion plating method is used, the welding of all joints can be completed at one time. In this way, for those occasions that require fine layout of circuits, such as radio, television, computer, etc., the use of printed circuits can save a lot of labor in wiring and fixing circuits; therefore, it is widely used and requires a large amount of copper foil. In addition, various copper-based brazing materials with low prices, low melting points and good fluidity are also needed in the connection of circuits.
Integrated Circuits
The core of microelectronics technology is integrated circuits. Integrated circuits refer to miniaturized circuits that use semiconductor crystal materials as substrates (chips) and use special process technologies to integrate the components and interconnects that make up the circuit inside, on the surface or on the substrate. This type of microcircuit is thousands of times smaller in size and weight than the most compact discrete component circuits in structure. Its emergence has caused a huge change in computers and has become the foundation of modern information technology. The ultra-large-scale integrated circuits that have been developed can produce more than 100,000 or even millions of transistors on a single chip area smaller than a thumb nail. IBM (International Business Machines Corporation), an internationally renowned computer company, has made a breakthrough by using copper instead of aluminum in silicon chips as interconnects. This new type of copper microchip can achieve a 30% performance gain, the line size of the circuit can be reduced to 0.12 microns, and the number of transistors integrated on a single chip can reach 2 million. This has created a new situation for the application of the ancient metal copper in the latest technology field of semiconductor integrated circuits.
Lead frame
In order to protect the normal operation of integrated circuits or hybrid circuits, they need to be packaged; and when packaging, a large number of connectors in the circuit are led out of the sealed body. These leads are required to have a certain strength and constitute the supporting skeleton of the integrated package circuit, which is called the lead frame. In actual production, in order to produce at high speed and in large quantities, the lead frame is usually continuously stamped on a metal strip in a specific arrangement. The frame material accounts for 1/3 to 1/4 of the total cost of the integrated circuit, and the amount used is large; therefore, it must have a low cost.
Copper alloy is inexpensive, has high strength, electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity, excellent processing performance, needle welding and corrosion resistance, and can control its performance in a wide range through alloying, which can better meet the performance requirements of the lead frame and has become an important material for the lead frame. It is currently the most used copper material in microelectronic devices.
