en.Wedoany.com Reported - Recently, Northern Copper Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Northern Copper"), headquartered in Shanxi Province, China, announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Shanxi Northern Copper New Material Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "New Material Technology Company"), has successfully cast a chromium-zirconium-copper alloy ingot approximately 9 meters long and weighing about 9 tons. Tests show that the product has uniform composition and meets performance standards. This marks a major breakthrough for Northern Copper in the field of high-end copper-based new materials, following its achievements in high-performance rolled copper foil and copper-nickel-silicon alloy foil.
Chromium-zirconium-copper alloy is the third-generation core substrate material for lead frames used in chip packaging, and is also applied in scenarios such as new energy vehicles and 5G communication base stations. This material must simultaneously meet two performance indicators: high strength and high electrical conductivity, with melting and casting control precision required at the parts-per-million level. Previously, the large-scale production technology for this material was long controlled by a few foreign companies. Northern Copper is a Chinese enterprise primarily engaged in copper mining, beneficiation, smelting, and copper processing, covering the entire chain from upstream mining to downstream high-value-added copper product manufacturing.
Wu Ting, Chief Engineer of Northern Copper's New Material Technology Company, explained that zirconium is highly prone to oxidation and burning loss during the melting and casting process, requiring extremely high precision in alloy composition. To address this challenge, Northern Copper leveraged its R&D platforms, including the "Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Copper-Based New Materials," and collaborated with Central South University in China, spending nearly two years on technical research. Ultimately, the R&D team innovatively adopted an induction melting and casting process, precisely controlling the content of chromium, zirconium, and trace elements to successfully resolve key technical issues such as alloy oxidation burning loss, composition segregation, and coarse grain structure. This enabled the stable production of large-scale ingots in ordinary induction furnaces, breaking the reliance on costly vacuum melting furnaces (with single-unit equipment investments typically exceeding 100 million RMB).
Lead frames made from chromium-zirconium-copper alloy are precision connectors that link chips to external circuits, widely used in consumer electronics, communications, and aerospace equipment. Currently, Northern Copper has completed production line validation and possesses an annual production capacity of 5,000 tons of this alloy. Commercial negotiations for the first batch of products have commenced, with potential downstream customers primarily concentrated in China's Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta electronics industry clusters.
This breakthrough enables Northern Copper to upgrade from basic copper processing to high-end new material manufacturing, filling an industrial gap in Shanxi Province for core substrate materials used in chip packaging. As mass production progresses, this material will provide new material options for China's domestic chip packaging industry.
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