A mobile phone has hundreds of capacitors and hundreds of resistors, accounting for more than half of the electronic components. China is the largest market for basic electronic components, consuming trillions of resistors and capacitors a year. And the best consumer grade capacitors and resistors come from Japan. The following with the Xiaobian network to understand the production status of China's high-end capacitor resistance.

Production status of high-end capacitors and resistors in China

Capacitors and resistors are the golden supporting roles of the electronics industry. The capacitor market is more than $20 billion a year, and the resistor is also on the order of $10 billion. The "number one player" in the market is Japan, accounting for more than half of the share, represented by Murata, TDK and other enterprises; Taiwan ranked second. 

"We can't simply say that we are not as good as others," said Wu Yer Qing, an electronics engineer and general manager of Riedi Aerospace (Beijing) Technology Co., LTD. "At the military level, domestic electrical resistance and capacitors can meet demand. Some special custom resistors, domestic companies can also produce. Where we have a gap over Japan is in consumer-grade, mass-produced components."

Cell phones, computers, household appliances, cars... The consumer electronics industry is the largest user of capacitive resistors. "In this field, the so-called high-end capacitor resistance, the most important thing is that the same batch should be as consistent as possible." "Japan is doing the best job in this area," Wu Yer, minister of state, said. "There is a big gap between domestic enterprises."

Chinese businesses can "fry all kinds of food, but they can't guarantee the same taste every time," Minister Wu Yer said.

Basic electronic components can be produced in batches of millions, and consistency is extremely important for quality control. For example, if a capacitor is not up to standard, it may make the phone charge more slowly, so the major brands of mobile phones only purchase the capacitor resistance of large manufacturers.

"In terms of technology, materials and quality control, domestic enterprises are relatively weak." "There are some 'Know How,'" she said.

Production status of high-end capacitors and resistors in China

Where is the difference between high-end capacitance and resistance in our country? Japanese MLCC products can achieve 1000 layers, and Chinese products are about 300 layers

MLCC (multi-layer chip ceramic capacitor) is a typical, it is the consumer electronics industry's largest use of basic components, but also the strength of Japanese companies. At present, Japanese MLCC products can achieve 1000 layers, and Chinese products are about 300 layers.

"MLCCS are like puff pastry, only much smaller." Zhang Guanghua, an electronics engineer who has worked in the industry for many years, said. The MLCC, about the size of a grain of rice, is a ceramic block with electrodes inside, stacked with hundreds of layers of ceramic and hundreds of layers of metal. The principle of capacitance is that two electrodes are sandwiched with a layer of insulating medium to store charge. The thinner the dielectric layer, the larger the capacitance value.

Zhang Guanghua says that making MLCC is a bit like making pancakes: the ceramic powder paste is flattened by a scraper into a coating about 1 micron thick, and then a layer of metal powder paste is applied, which is the ceramic medium attached to the electrode. After that, a large sheet of film is laminated, dried, and fired into porcelain.

"A pancake with a thousand layers is difficult to smooth." Zhang Guanghua said, "Each level is different, if the 'pancake' cracked a crack, the capacitance value is not large enough."

Many links affect the quality: ceramic paste and electrode paste are not compatible, and it will "peel" when dry; Drying too fast cracks, drying is not thorough will also lead to defects; Porcelain firing should be exposed to special gases; Cooling too fast will crack...

Zhang Guanghua said that which link is not in place, the product may be a large proportion of substandard. Customer requirements are a million MLCC only allow one unqualified.

In addition, MLCC is very fragile, the same specification of the product, the big brand may be more excellent details, more difficult to mechanical damage.

Materials are the short board of China's electronic components enterprises

Companies that produce capacitors generally also produce "passive components" such as resistors and inductors. There are similarities in techniques. Such as consumer electronics products with the largest amount of resistance: film resistance, only the size of toothpick head, ceramic substrate coating manufacturing, the process is slightly less fine, the index is greatly discounted.

Materials are the short board of China's electronic components enterprises: ceramic slurry involves barium titanate and titanium oxide many ceramic materials, but also mixed with organic glue, etc. Electrode slurry is mixed with nickel powder, copper powder and resin, etc., the formula needs to be studied. The highest quality ceramic and electrode pastes are produced by Japanese companies. Japanese giants such as Murata and Kyocera started out making materials and later made electronic components.

After World War II, Japan focused on civilian electronics, and the electronics industry cluster is conducive to Murata and other materials companies to extend their business, Wu Yer said. "It's like a factory that produces flour has opened its own ramen shop."

The Japanese giants that have adhered to basic research and development for decades have always focused on the high-end. Basic electronic components have been soaring since late last year, Ms. Wu said, as Japan's big companies stopped production of products with thin profit margins to focus on the high-end market.

According to industry estimates, as mobile phones become thinner and more frequency bands, the amount of small and good performance components will increase greatly, and the iPhone uses the MLCC of mobile phones is the most, and the latest iPhone uses thousands of MLCC. Computers and TVS are used more than mobile phones.

Cars (especially electric vehicles) use more capacitors and resistors, and the quality of components is demanding, because the impact, temperature, dust and corrosion conditions are more severe, and there must be no safety hazards. The automotive components market is large, but the technical threshold is high, and it may continue to be dominated by Japanese giants in the future.