PCB Tech - A brief history of PCB circuit board development

The basic concept of printed circuit board has been proposed in patents at the beginning of this century.In 1947, the American Aviation Administration and the American Bureau of Standards initiated the first technical seminar on printed circuits. At that time, 26 different printed circuit manufacturing methods were listed. It is summarized into six categories: coating method, spraying method, chemical deposition method, vacuum evaporation method, molding method and powder compaction method. At that time, these methods failed to achieve large-scale industrial production. Until the early 1950s, due to copper foil and layer The adhesion problem of the pressure plate has been solved, the performance of the copper clad laminate is stable and reliable, and large-scale industrial production has been realized. The copper foil etching method has become the mainstream of the printed board manufacturing technology and has been developed to this day. In the 1960s, the hole metallization double Surface printing and multi-layer printed boards have achieved mass production. In the 1970s, they received large-scale integrated circuits and electronic computers and developed rapidly. The rapid development of surface mounting technology in the 1980s and multi-chip assembly technology in the 1990s promoted With the continuous advancement of printed circuit board production technology, a number of new materials, new equipment, and new test instruments have emerged one after another. Printed circuit production has moved further to high-density, thin-wire, multi-layer, high-reliability, low-cost, and automated continuous production. The direction of development.

China began the development of single-sided printed boards in the mid-1950s. It was first applied to semiconductor radios. In the mid-1960s, China's foil-clad laminate substrates were developed independently, making copper foil etching the dominant PCB production in China Process. In the 1960s, it was able to produce single-sided panels in large quantities, and small batches to produce double-sided metallized hole printing, and began to develop multilayer boards in a few units. In the 1970s, the pattern electroplating etching process was promoted in China. However, due to various interferences, the special materials and special equipment for printed circuits did not keep up in time, and the entire production technology level lags behind the advanced level of foreign countries. In the 1980s, due to the reform and opening In the 1980s, the advanced level of single-sided, double-sided, and multi-layer printed circuit board production lines, and after more than ten years of digestion and absorption, quickly improved the level of printed circuit production technology in China.

Since 1990, foreign PCB manufacturers in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan have come to China to set up joint ventures or wholly-owned factories, which has led to a rapid increase in China's PCB production and rapid development. In 1995, the National Printed Circuit Industry Association conducted a nationwide survey. A total of 459 printed circuit board manufacturers across the country were surveyed, including 128 state-owned enterprises, 125 collective enterprises, 86 joint ventures, 22 private enterprises, and foreign capital. 98 enterprises. The total output of printed boards has reached 16.56 million square meters, including 3.62 million square meters for double-sided boards and 1.24 million square meters for multilayer boards, and total sales of 9 billion yuan (approximately US$1.1 billion). According to the data of the American IPC Association, the sales of printed circuits in China including Hong Kong in 1994 was 1.17 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 5.5% of the world's total, ranking fourth in the world. In terms of production technology, due to the introduction of a large number of foreign advanced equipment and advanced technology The production technology has greatly shortened the gap with foreign countries and made great progress. However, most of China's PCB companies are small in scale, with low per capita annual sales and low industrial productivity, and low technical level.