Not long ago, Apple officially announced the release of the new generation iPhone 14, continuing the habit of updating every year. Many users exclaimed that "the original iPhone has reached 14" and won millions of online bookings in the Chinese market in a short period of time, indicating that the iPhone is still popular among young people.

1、 Smartphones raise the demand for the first round of precision laser processing

Looking back more than a decade ago, when smartphones were just launched, industrial laser processing technology was still at a relatively low level. Fiber laser and ultrafast laser were both new things, and there was even a blank in China, where precision laser processing was impossible to talk about. Since 2011, low-end precision laser marking has gradually started to be applied in China. At that time, the main discussion was about low-power solid-state pulse green light and ultraviolet lasers. At this time, ultrafast laser technology has become mature and commercially available abroad, and ultrafast precision laser processing has begun to be discussed by people.

The mass application of precision laser processing largely benefits from the promotion of smartphones. Camera slides, fingerprint modules, HOME keys, camera blind holes, and irregular cutting of mobile phone panels are all achieved through breakthroughs in ultra fast laser precision cutting technology. Especially the main laser precision processing equipment manufacturers in China, including Daizu, Shengxiong Laser, Delong Laser, etc., all source their precision processing business from consumer electronics processing. It can be said that the previous wave of precision laser processing was driven by consumer electronics, especially smartphones and display panels.

Laser panel cutting

From 2021 to this year, consumer products such as smartphones, wearable bracelets, and display panels have all shown a downward trend, leading to a weakening demand for consumer electronic processing equipment and significant pressure on the growth of precision laser processing equipment. Can the new iPhone 14 drive a new wave of processing frenzy? According to the current trend of decreasing people's willingness to switch phones, it is almost certain that smartphones cannot bring new market demand without revolutionary technological breakthroughs. The 5G and foldable screen phones that became popular a few years ago can only bring about partial stock replacement.

So, where may the demand explosion point for the next round of precision laser processing be?

2、 The Rise of China's Semiconductor and Chip Industry

China is truly a world factory. In 2020, the added value of China's manufacturing industry accounted for 28.5% of the world's total. It is precisely because of its huge manufacturing industry that it has brought huge market potential for laser processing and manufacturing. However, the early technological accumulation in China's manufacturing industry is weak, and most of it belongs to low-end industries. In the past decade, industrial upgrading has been carried out, and significant progress has been made in machinery, transportation, energy, marine engineering, aerospace, manufacturing equipment, etc., including the rapid development of lasers and laser equipment, greatly narrowing the gap with foreign advanced levels.

Only in the chip industry, China is still subject to significant restrictions from foreign countries, especially in recent years when the United States has attempted to block and cut off supply of Chinese chips. The global chip industry has formed an industrial chain of design and development in the United States, raw materials provided by Japan, processing and assembly in South Korea and Taiwan, China. As the largest semiconductor and chip consumer market in the world, Chinese Mainland lags behind in the localization of the chip industry. The chip sales in the Chinese market reached US $192.5 billion, accounting for 34% of the global sales. Foreign containment forced China to increase its investment in chip technology. Therefore, the country has vigorously supported the development of the chip industry in the past four years and included it in the medium - and long-term strategic plan.

According to the statistics of the International Semiconductor Industry Association, the speed of wafer fab construction in Chinese Mainland ranks first in the world. It is estimated that 31 large wafer fabs will be built by the end of 2024, mainly focusing on mature processes; The speed of factory establishment has significantly surpassed the 19 scheduled to be put into operation in Taiwan during the same period, as well as the expected 12 in the United States.

Not long ago, China announced that the integrated circuit industry in Shanghai has broken through the manufacturing process of 14nm chips and achieved a certain scale of mass production. For some chips above 28nm used in household appliances, automobiles, and communication, China has a very mature manufacturing process that can fully meet the overall needs of most chips in China. With the introduction of the chip bill by the United States, the competition in chip technology between China and the United States is becoming more intense, and there is a possibility of oversupply. In 2021, China's import of chips has begun to show a significant decline.

Laser processing chips

3、 Laser processing in semiconductor chips

Wafer is the fundamental material for semiconductor products and chips. After wafer growth, it needs to undergo mechanical polishing, and the later stage is particularly important for wafer cutting processing, also known as wafer scribing. The early short pulse DPSS laser wafer cutting technology has matured in Europe and the United States. With the rapid development and power improvement of ultrafast lasers, ultrafast laser cutting of wafers will gradually become the mainstream in the future, especially in wafer cutting, micro drilling, sealing and testing processes, where there is a great potential for equipment demand.

At present, there are precision laser equipment manufacturers in China that can provide wafer slotting equipment, which can be applied to surface slotting of 12 inch wafers below 28nm process, as well as laser wafer steganography equipment used in high-end chip manufacturing fields such as MEMS sensor chips and storage chips. In 2020, a large laser enterprise in Shenzhen had developed a laser debonding device to separate glass and silicon wafers, which can be used for high-end semiconductor chip applications.

Laser cutting of chip wafers

In mid-2022, a laser enterprise in Wuhan launched the industry's first fully automatic laser modification and cutting equipment, which was successfully applied to laser surface treatment in the field of chips. This device adopts high-precision femtosecond laser, uses extremely low pulse energy, and undergoes laser modification treatment on the surface of semiconductor materials within the micrometer range, thereby greatly improving the performance of semiconductor optoelectronic devices. Suitable for internal modification cutting of high cost, narrow channel (≥ 20um) compound semiconductor SiC, GaAs, LiTaO3 and other wafer chips, such as silicon chips, MEMS sensor chips, CMOS chips, etc.

China is currently working on key technologies for lithography equipment, which will drive the demand for excimer lasers and extreme ultraviolet lasers used in lithography. However, there has been almost no such technology in China before.

4、 Precision laser processing moving towards high-end, chips may become the next wave of craze

Due to the weakness of China's semiconductor chip industry in the past, research and application of laser processing chips were relatively limited. Instead, they were first applied in downstream consumer electronics product terminal assembly. In the future, the main market for precision laser processing in China will gradually shift from general electronic component processing to upstream materials and core components, especially in the preparation of semiconductor materials, biomedical materials, polymer materials, etc.

More and more laser application processes in the semiconductor chip industry will be invented, and non-contact optical processing is the most suitable method for high-precision chip products. With a huge demand, the chip industry is highly likely to support the next wave of demand for precision laser processing equipment.

Source: Laser Manufacturing Network LaserfairCom Author: Guangzhou Teyu Electromechanical Co., Ltd