U.S. company invents flexible circuit boards and expects semiconductor industry to return to U.S.

Date：

2016-09-15

Source：

"Wall Street Journal" reported that Silicon Valley is preparing to reshape the foundation of the semiconductor industry-circuit boards. A flexible, ultra-thin transparent circuit board is expected to create more jobs in the US semiconductor industry.

Companies such as Jabil Circuit Inc and Flextronics International, which make this circuit board, envision that this ultra-thin circuit board can be used to closely fit the skin to analyze the physical conditions of soldiers and pilots, and act as a detector around natural gas pipelines or provide stress sensors that can detect aircraft wings. Flexible node. This new semiconductor industry consortium is being led by the US Department of Defense and the US Department of Energy to get rid of traditional circuit board materials and production technologies.

In some cases, semiconductor circuits can be printed on paper, plastic, or other organic materials, similar to inkjet printing processes. The concept of applying printing technology to electronic products has been over a decade. But in the past efforts in this area have largely failed, because the silicon chips that the technology is trying to replace are cheaper and more versatile.

But now, in addition to driving technological innovation, related companies and US government officials hope that new technologies can return semiconductor manufacturing to the United States. Most of the mass-produced chips and other electronic devices have long been transferred from Silicon Valley to low-cost regions such as China. But companies like Jabil Circuit Inc and Flextronics International Ltd have their manufacturing links in the United States to help customers design products and build prototypes. Flexible circuit printing manufacturing can provide more opportunities for semiconductor manufacturing. Some executives hope that the proprietary technology developed by American companies will make it harder for flexible circuits to allow foreign factories to replicate the same products.

This technology can be widely used in areas where small circuits need to be embedded, such as car windshields, antennas, solar cells, and radio frequency identification tags. IDTechEx predicts that the market size of flexible electronic products will grow from US$8.6 billion this year to US$26.2 billion in 2020. For a long time, American semiconductor companies have been committed to the production of thinner silicon wafer technology. The chip produced by the flexible circuit can be rolled up like a piece of paper. Part of the interest of the US military comes from the desire to reduce the weight of electronic equipment that soldiers must carry, and to track the health of soldiers. Flexible skin monitoring sensors can detect the fatigue of soldiers on the battlefield. One of the flexible circuit development companies, NextFlex, has $7.5 billion in funding from the Department of Defense and several cooperative colleges established by the Obama administration to encourage manufacturing technology.