The writer is Hello Jelly, a practitioner in the mobile phone hardware industry. 3D laser printing is known as "the concept of the last century, the technology of the last century, and the market of this century", but until now, it has not been really industrialized, such as laser sintering technology, laser transparent material engraving technology, etc., and the main application is still in the "craft" market.
The main obstacle to large-scale application is the material itself – 3D printing can easily be made into a model, but it is not so easy to construct a functional product. Just as the plastic model of printing a gun is simple, but it can withstand 1000 degrees of high temperature when a bullet bursts, and can ensure reliable stability in the fight, 3D printing cannot take on this important task.
With the conventional manufacturing process, plastic or metal mold opening can be directly put on the production line on a large scale, and the cost of a single piece is far faster and lower than the current 3D printing speed. However, the changes in market demand also promote the maturity of 3D laser technology: modern people's demand for small and beautiful personalized products drives the increasing application of handicraft market.
The demand for product intelligence and miniaturization also promotes the development of 3D laser processing technology - directly building micro integrated accessories and circuits of intelligent equipment.
3D-MID technology that endows the soul of intelligent products
In general 3D printing, the "body" of the product is printed. The 3D-MID laser printing technology prints the "soul" of functional products, that is, to realize the intellectualization and functionalization of products. If intelligent devices are like people, then CPU is the human brain, IC devices are eyes, ears, mouth, nose and other organs, and circuits are connected to the whole nervous system. In the past, domestic research often focused on "brain", but ignored "organ" and "nervous system". 3D-MID laser printing technology is the process technology to build "organ" and "nervous system" of functional products.
3D-MID technology is the abbreviation of "Three dimensional Molded Interconnect Device" in English, and the Chinese literal translation is three-dimensional molded interconnect or electronic components. In short, it refers to the production of three-dimensional circuits with electrical functions on the surface of the plastic shell of injection molding.
In fact, 3D-MID is not unfamiliar to many mobile phone enthusiasts. At present, 3D-MID technology has been used on many high-end flagship mobile phones, including LDS antenna Is one of our most common applications.
The rear cover design of Nubia Z5 adopts LDS technology
With the improvement of the integration of electronic equipment, the size of the equipment becomes smaller and smaller. At this time, the electronic components are too large for the entire equipment, which requires reducing their own size. However, it is an arduous task to reduce the size of electronic components without significantly affecting their function and efficiency, and 3D-MID can solve this problem well. There are many kinds of 3D-MID technologies, including LDS, LRP, etc.
LDS technology
At present, the most widely used is LDS technology, which has been widely used in communication, automotive electronics, electromechanical equipment, medical devices and other applications. Ordinary mobile phone antennas are installed on the motherboard of the mobile phone. The LDS antenna technology is the laser direct structuring technology, which uses the computer to control the laser movement according to the path of the conductive pattern, and projects the laser onto the molded three-dimensional plastic device, which can activate the circuit pattern in a few seconds. In short, the laser technology is used to directly deposit metal on the bracket, so that the antenna can be directly made on the mobile phone shell. The advantage of this antenna is that it is more stable and can avoid interference from internal components. At the same time, it can save more design space and make the mobile phone thinner.
Nubia z5 rear shell
LRP technology
LRP means that conductive silver paste is coated on the surface of the workpiece with high speed and accuracy through 3D printing process to form antenna shape, and then 3D controlled laser trimming is used to form high-precision circuit interconnection structure.
Unlike the popular 3D printing concept, the LRP (laser reconstruction printing) of 3D-MID technology is a 3D printing technology based on 3D laser that is suitable for mass production. Compared with the traditional mass production process, it has obvious advantages:
Application of 3D-MID Laser Printing Technology
3D-MID technology based on 3D laser can be widely used in mobile communication, handheld Internet devices, precision instruments, medical equipment, automobiles, aviation and many other fields, which can effectively reduce product volume, improve reliability and provide strong support for product innovation.
3D-MID technology was first proposed in the early 1980s and began to be applied on a large scale only after 2005. Domestic companies including Fanyou Technology Co., Ltd. and Tongtuo Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. have successfully developed 3D-MID technology with independent intellectual property rights.
At present, the most important applications are mainly used to produce precision conformal antennas for high-end mobile phones, including flagship models such as Xiaomi 2, Huawei P2, and Samsung G3, G4. 3D-MID technology has been widely used. With the trend of intelligence and miniaturization, the development of 3D-MID technology has unlimited imagination.
