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PCB Tech

PCB Tech - How did PCB become a big winner in the 5G era?

PCB Tech

PCB Tech - How did PCB become a big winner in the 5G era?

How did PCB become a big winner in the 5G era?

2021-10-19
View:386
Author:Downs

Due to the high-speed and high-frequency characteristics of 5G, as far as a single base station is concerned, the value of the communication board will also be greatly improved. On the one hand, with the increase in 5G frequency bands and the increase in frequency, the number of RF front-end components has increased significantly, and Massive MIMO has been integrated on the AAU. The PCB area on the AAU has increased significantly, and the number of layers has increased. Copper plate transfer; on the other hand, with the substantial increase in 5G transmission data, there are higher requirements for the data processing capacity of the base station BBU. The BBU will use a larger area and higher layer number of PCBs, and the substrate needs to use high-speed and high-frequency materials. According to conservative calculations, the PCB value of a single 5G macro base station is more than twice that of 4G.

(2) The demand for thinner and lighter 5G mobile phones, tablets, etc. drives the increase of FPC market space

IDC predicts that the first batch of 5G smartphones will be launched in the second half of 2019. By 2020, 5G mobile phone shipments will reach 7% of the total smartphone shipments (approximately 212 million units), and will account for 18% by 2022 .

pcb board

According to industry research, there are at least 20 FPC part numbers in the new Apple mobile phones, with a value of more than US$20. Tablet products are also expected to be further thinner and thinner, and FPC products will be used in large numbers. At the same time, domestic leading brands such as Huawei, OPPO, and vivo have also increased their FPC usage to 10-12 yuan.

In 2016, the global FPC market grew to 85.2 billion yuan, and the FPC China market grew to 31.6 billion yuan. It is estimated that by 2021, the Chinese FPC market is expected to reach 51.6 billion yuan, with a compound growth rate of 10%.

Compared with 4G, the number of 5G base stations will increase. According to the public data of China’s three major telecom operators, in 2016, China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom added 400,000, 380,000 and 340,000 4G base stations, respectively, increasing the total number To 1.51 million, 890,000, and 740,000, for a total of about 3.14 million. According to estimates, the number of small base stations in the future will be more than 10 times that of the current base station market.

The downstream is mainly used in the fields of computers, communication equipment, industrial control, automotive electronics, consumer electronics and aerospace, covering a very wide range. Among them, communications, computers, and consumer electronics are the three most important application terminals in the PCB industry, with demand accounting for 27%, 27%, and 14% respectively, directly affecting the development of the upstream PCB industry.

The upstream is all kinds of raw materials for PCB production, mainly including copper clad laminates, copper foils, copper balls, prepregs, gold salts, inks, dry films and other chemical materials. The main raw materials for flexible circuit boards also include cover films, electromagnetic films, etc.

In the past 10 years, the global PCB industry has maintained an average annual compound growth rate of about 4%. In 2017, the global PCB output value was 58.8 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year growth rate of 8.60%, and China's PCB output value was 29.7 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year growth rate of 9.70%, which was higher than the global growth rate. From the perspective of the regional distribution of PCB output value, the focus of the PCB industry is constantly shifting to the Asian region. China has become the most important player in the global PCB industry, accounting for more than 50% of the global PCB output value.

The arrival of 5G is the beginning of the real interconnection of everything. 5G will complete the interconnection of everything in the world. With the advent of the 5G era, PCBs for communication will also have a great time!

PCB, or Printed Circuit Board (Printed Circuit Board), is known as the "mother of electronic products". All electronic equipment or products need to be equipped with PCB board s, so that its downstream demand is continuous and stable, and its industrial development level can be to a certain extent Reflect the development speed and technological level of a country or region's electronic information industry.