The 5G+IoT wave comes, and the flexible circuit board industry ushers in a new blue ocean

The 5G+IoT wave comes, and the flexible circuit board industry ushers in a new blue ocean

Circuit board manufacturers, circuit board designers and PCBA manufacturers explain that the 5G+IoT wave is coming, and the flexible circuit board industry ushers in a new blue ocean

With the gradual development of electronic products toward the trend of thin, thin and small, flexible circuit boards (FPCs, also known as soft boards) are increasingly used in advanced consumer electronic products such as mobile phones and wearable devices. From touch control, antennas, 3D sensing, LCD screens to camera lens modules, FPCs are all playing a role. The trend of the rise of flexible circuit boards is likely to usher in a greater growth wave with the advent of the 5G era in the future.

5G and IoT (Internet of Things) will bring about a huge industrial revolution, which is the consensus of the entire science and technology industry. Flexible circuit board manufacturers also believe that the voice of flexible circuit boards will gradually improve in the future. Now, more and more new applications have considered flexible circuit boards as the main carrier. Related research projects are in full swing. It can be expected that, In the future, flexible circuit boards will become key components in IoT and 5G applications.

IoT devices bloom

The penetration of flexible circuit boards in smart phones and various wearable devices has become more and more high in recent years, which also gives the opportunity to rapidly improve the technical specifications of flexible circuit boards, and expands the application scope of flexible circuit boards to more different product lines, in addition to mobile phones, NB, tablets, wearable devices and other large consumer electronic products, including VR New products to be developed such as smart glasses also need the support of flexible circuit board technology, which can be said to have become an indispensable part of consumer electronic products.

In the near future, many IoT devices must be designed according to the use situation. At that time, the design concept will be light, thin and short, just like that of mobile phones. With previous success in other products, flexible circuit boards will be regarded as the key technology on future IoT devices. Amazon, Google and Microsoft are regarded as leaders in the IoT market in the future, and they are actively looking for flexible circuit board manufacturers to develop new products.

The diversity of IoT products makes flexible circuit board practitioners look forward to the development of this market in the future. Although the mobile phone still has its irreplaceable core position. However, in the 5G era, the extensive application brought by IoT is likely to become the main field of flexible circuit board application, and the growth rate will surpass all existing consumer electronic products, among which the market of home, commercial and automotive scenarios is the most concerned at present.

5G wireless transmission emerging

Another important part of the soft board factory is the antenna module. Compared with IoT industry, which can be regarded as an extension of consumer electronic products, antenna application is an unexpected application market. This development will be increased, mainly because smart phones begin to change the wireless transmission module into a flexible circuit board design. This technological breakthrough has met the needs of many consumer electronic products that want to have both antenna transmission capacity and lightweight and short, and has successfully opened a new market for flexible circuit boards.

The insiders believe that the future mobile antenna transmission market will be very different from the past, and the flexible circuit board products may replace the traditional antenna assembly plants, because once the 5G mobile antenna is turned to the flexible circuit board technology on a large scale, the traditional antenna assembly plants will certainly have no time in technology to catch up with the pioneers who have entered the antenna flexible circuit board market for a long time.

In the future, the supply chain of antenna modules is likely to be transformed into an IC design company that will produce chips for antenna transmission functions and lead the design of the entire antenna module, while the cooperating flexible circuit board factory will be responsible for designing and producing flexible circuit board products for modules, and then provide the entire module to the required terminal customers. From the perspective of IoT scenario, we can feel the market potential of antenna modules.

In the trend of the Internet of Things, it is not necessarily that every electronic product must have a powerful CPU, but any product must have an antenna transmission module for information transmission to conform to the concept of the Internet of Things. From all kinds of indoor products to all kinds of outdoor infrastructure and vehicle carriers, they must be connected with each other through antennas. The demand scale of antenna modules in the future must be quite amazing. As long as the flexible circuit board technology can become one of the mainstream designs of antennas as expected, it is bound to grow with antennas. PCB manufacturers, PCB designers and PCBA processors explain that the 5G+IoT wave is coming, and the flexible circuit board industry is ushering in a new blue ocean.