As electronic devices continue to develop towards miniaturization, lightness and high performance, the miniaturization design of circuit boards has become an inevitable trend, but this process faces many technical challenges.
First, the high density of circuit layout is a major challenge. In the limited area of the circuit board, more and more electronic components and circuits need to be integrated, which requires the line width and spacing to continue to shrink. However, too narrow a line will lead to increased resistance and increased signal transmission loss, and it is also easy to cause electromagnetic interference between lines. For example, in the design of a smartphone motherboard, a large number of functional modules need to be arranged in a small space. If you are not careful, signal crosstalk may occur, affecting the normal operation of the mobile phone.
Secondly, the heat dissipation problem is becoming more and more serious. The power density of electronic components on the miniaturized circuit board continues to increase, and the heat accumulation is difficult to dissipate effectively. Traditional heat dissipation methods such as heat sinks and fans may be difficult to use or have poor effects in miniaturized designs. Due to space limitations, large heat dissipation devices cannot be installed, and the heat dissipation efficiency of small heat dissipation structures is difficult to meet the needs, resulting in the performance of components being reduced or even damaged due to overheating, affecting the reliability and life of the entire circuit board.
Furthermore, the miniaturization of components is difficult to adapt to packaging technology. As circuit boards become miniaturized, the size requirements for electronic components become more stringent, and component packaging also needs to be reduced accordingly. However, this will bring a series of problems, such as the small pin spacing makes welding more difficult, and welding defects such as cold soldering and bridging are prone to occur, affecting the reliability of circuit connection. At the same time, the mechanical strength of small packaged components is relatively low, and they are more susceptible to external damage during production, transportation and use.
The guarantee of signal integrity is also extremely challenging. In miniaturized circuit boards, the line length is shortened and the spacing is smaller, and the reflection and crosstalk of signal transmission are more prominent. High-speed signals frequently reflect and interfere in a short distance, which will seriously reduce the signal quality, resulting in data transmission errors or system instability. For example, in high-speed data communication circuit boards, small changes in the line layout may destroy the integrity of the signal and affect the data transmission rate and accuracy.
The precision requirements of the manufacturing process have been greatly improved. Miniaturized circuit boards require more sophisticated manufacturing processes to achieve accurate processing and installation of tiny circuits and components. Traditional circuit board manufacturing processes are difficult to meet such high-precision requirements. For example, photolithography requires higher resolution, and drilling processes require smaller apertures and higher positional accuracy, which puts higher professional requirements and cost investment on production equipment and manufacturing technicians.
In addition, the difficulty of testing and repairing miniaturized circuit boards has increased significantly. Because components and circuits are small and dense, traditional test probes are difficult to accurately contact test points, making fault troubleshooting and positioning extremely difficult. Once a fault occurs, it is extremely difficult for maintenance personnel to perform repair operations without damaging surrounding components and circuits. They often need to use specialized high-precision maintenance equipment and technical means, which also increases the maintenance cost and time of circuit boards.
