The dimension of 3C products has become smaller and smaller and the circuit board requirements have become finer and thinner. Therefore, the application of the three-layer method using conductive copper foil rolling and plastic plate bonding with 0.05~0.135mm thickness has been limited. Many portable 3C products have gradually adopted flexible material, such as flexible LCD/OLED display and FPC mobile phone that require thickness of circuit board less than 0.05mm.

Currently, the roll-to-roll equipment to produce 3C products is mainly imported from Germany, Japan or Eastern Europe with limited quantities and selling price more than NT$100 million. However, the related manufacturing process has to be developed domestically. Only a few of manufacturers with abundant capital are dedicated to the research of the manufacturing process; other enterprises halt in hesitation due to equipment cost and insufficient R&D manpower in the manufacturing technology. To assist the development of the local opto-electronics industry and to respond to government policy to reach 40% of local content requirements for flat panel display manufacturing equipment in 2008, MIRDC is proactively dedicated to the development of vacuum roll-to-roll sputtering equipment. This development could cope with products requirements of manufacturers to tailor-make the required manufacturing process and service and to solve the inconvenience of using imported equipment for manufacturers.

MIRDC adopted the capabilities established in the previous plasma thin film manufacturing process and equipment developing technology to develop the key technologies for thin film deposited on the flexible substrate, including substrate surface treatment, tension control, substrate cooling design, differential pumping design and magnetron sputtering target source. The previous capabilities include plasma treatment technology for PI flexible substrate, EMI coating for mobile phone and notebook housing, cooper film for flexible circuit board and touch panel ITO coating. MIRDC wishes to provide a complete solution for manufacturers to assist domestic equipment manufacturers in the development of high value-added opto-electronics industry. It is expected to integrate mechanical, optical, electronics and thermal knowledge and technology to establish the core manufacturing processes and equipment technology support system for the opto-electronics flat panel display industry.