PCB Tech - Prospects for the future development of FPC

With the upgrading of electronic products, FPC (flexible circuit board) caters to the development trend of light, thin, short and small electronic products with its unique advantages, and plays an important cornerstone role in the field of electronic information industry. This paper analyzes the application of FPC in the actual application field, especially its application in the three fields of mobile phones, automobiles, and medical monitoring equipment, and makes a prospect for the future development of FPC.

1. Overview of flexible circuit boards

Flexible printed circuit (Flexible Printed Circuit, FPC), also known as flexible circuit board, flexible circuit board, or FPC for short, has high wiring density, light weight, thin thickness, less wiring space restriction, high flexibility, etc. The advantages are fully in line with the development trend of light, thin, short and small electronic products, and are an effective solution to meet the requirements of miniaturization and mobility of electronic products. FPC can be bent, wound, and folded freely, and can withstand millions of dynamic bending without damaging the wire. It can be arranged arbitrarily according to the space layout requirements, and can move and expand in three-dimensional space, so as to achieve component assembly and wire connection The effect of integration. FPC can greatly reduce the volume and weight of electronic products, and is suitable for the development of electronic products in the direction of high density, miniaturization and high reliability. Therefore, it is widely used in PC and peripheral products, automotive electronics, medical equipment, communication products, consumer electronics and other fields.

FPCA(Flexible

PrintedCircuitAssembly) products, namely FPC components, are the extension of the FPC business industrial chain, and the mainstream technology in the industry is SMT. SMT(SurfaceMount

Technology) is the surface assembly technology of electronic circuits, also known as surface mount or surface mount technology. It is a kind of surface mount components without leads or short leads (SMC/SMD for short, chip components in Chinese) mounted on the surface of a printed circuit board or other substrates by reflow soldering or dip soldering. Circuit assembly technology to be welded and assembled. The application of SMT technology has the following advantages:

1. High assembly density, small size and light weight of electronic products. The volume and weight of patch components are only about 1/10 of that of traditional plug-in components. Generally, after SMT is adopted, the volume of electronic products is reduced by 40% to 60%, and the weight is reduced by 60%. %～80%. Second, it has high reliability, strong earthquake resistance, low solder joint defect rate and good high frequency characteristics. Third, it reduces electromagnetic and radio frequency interference. Fourth, it is easy to realize automation and improve production efficiency. Fifth, save materials, energy, equipment, manpower, time, etc.

Second, the application of flexible circuit boards

The demand trend of light, thin, short, and small electronic products has caused FPC to rapidly shift from military supplies to civilian use and to consumer electronic products. In recent years, almost all high-tech electronic products that have emerged in recent years have adopted a large number of flexible circuit boards. Japanese scholar Kenshi Sakura said in the book "High-density Flexible Printed Circuit Boards": Almost all electrical products use flexible circuit boards, but now it is difficult to find slightly more complex electronic products that do not use flexible circuit boards. NS.

Third, the market prospects of flexible circuit boards

The “Guide to Priority Development of High-Tech Industrialization Key Fields (2011)” mentioned: The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Commerce and the Information Devices, high-density multilayer printed circuit boards and flexible circuit boards are listed as one of the current priority areas of information high-tech industrialization. With the continuous advancement of informatization and intelligent construction, the market's demand for flexible circuit boards will also increase.

1) Mobile phone market. As far as mobile phones are concerned, FPCs are mainly used as parts for signal connection such as folding and rotating in mobile phones. At present, more than 3 FPCs are used in mobile phones. With the popularity of light, thin, short and small high-function mobile phones, FPC is driven. need. FPC can be used in functions such as mobile phone bends, LCD modules, camera modules, buttons, side buttons, antennas, and battery control. FPC is currently at the turning point of mobile phones (Hinge

Part) is the most widely used. The common ones are folding, sliding, clamshell and three-dimensional rotating bodies. Most of them are double-sided or multi-layer FPC designs. They are the largest FPC in mobile phone applications. As for the button FPC, camera module, antenna or battery FPC, it is the selective design of the mobile phone designer. Under the situation that the above-mentioned selective functions will gradually be incorporated into the standardized design of mobile phones, it will help increase the amount of FPC.

(2) Automotive electronics market. Under the trend of automotive electronics, automotive control systems, such as dashboard display, air quality, audio, displays, sensors, etc., require high signal transmission and high reliability to make FPC begin to show its advantages. In FPC components precision In addition to the trend of the three-dimensional structure of the car body, the wiring area is narrow and bent, the use of FPC components can better meet the design requirements.

(3) Medical monitoring equipment. As the conventional medical equipment in hospitals and other medical institutions, medical monitoring equipment has gradually become widely used in large and medium-sized hospitals. With the rapid development of China’s economy, the state and family have attached great importance to the construction of primary medical and health systems at the county, township, and community levels. This has been jointly promoted by internal and external needs such as aging, second-child policy, consumption upgrades, medical reform investment, and policy support., And the current domestic overall level is maintained at a relatively low level, there is still considerable room for development of medical monitoring equipment, and the development prospects of the domestic medical device industry are worth looking forward to.

In summary, as society’s requirements for informatization and intelligence continue to increase, and it has penetrated almost all walks of life, as mentioned in the article, it has been difficult to find slightly more complex electronic products that do not use FPC and FPC components. . As the country will further increase investment in electronic information construction in various fields, the acceleration of electronic information construction in the downstream field will inevitably drive the development of FPC and FPC component industries. At the same time, 4G business has been rolled out nationwide, which will also bring new development opportunities for the flexible printed circuit board industry.