Brief History of Worldwide Copper Foil Production Development
In 1937, the Anaconda Company’s copper smelting plant in the United States pioneered the establishment of the copper foil industry, initially used for waterproofing wooden roofs. By the early 1950s, the emergence of the printed circuit board industry transformed the copper foil industry into a crucial precision sector associated with the electronic information industry. Following Yates Corporation’s specialization in electrolytic copper foil production for PCB in 1955, the American Gould company also entered the industry in 1957, marking the global division of Yates’ copper foil market.
Japan’s Mitsui Metal Company introduced American copper foil manufacturing technology in 1968, leading to significant development in the Japanese copper foil industry through collaborations with Yates and Gould. The Yates company’s 1972 patent publication (U.S.Pat 3674656) signaled a new stage in electrolytic copper foil manufacturing and surface treatment technology globally. By 1999, the global production of electrolytic copper foil for PCB had reached approximately 180,000 tons, and it was predicted to increase to 253,000 tons in 2001.
High Performance Electrolytic Copper Foil
In recent years, the global copper foil industry has seen continuous innovation and development in high-performance electrolytic copper foil manufacturing technologies. Experts predict that high-density thinning, multi-layer, thinning, and high-performance copper foils may capture over 40% of the PCB market share in the near future.
Key characteristics of high-performance copper foils include superior tensile strength and elongation, as well as the emergence of low profile (LP) and very low profile (VLP) electrolytic copper foils, making them suitable for manufacturing high-precision PCB graphics circuits. The development of LP and VLP copper foils in the early 1990s in the United States and Japan ushered in a new generation of copper foils with fine crystals, equiaxed grains, and low surface roughness.