PCB Tech - Folding screen mobile phones drive the FPC industry

With the continuous update and iteration of smart phone technology, flexible screen phones have also begun to emerge, and may become the next design trend for full-screen phones in the future. The flexible circuit board has become an indispensable component of consumer electronic products such as smart phones due to its light weight, thin thickness, and good flexibility. In the design of folding screens, flexible circuit boards are bound to be more widely used, but the application of FPC (flexible circuit boards) in smart phones still faces many technical difficulties, which have become the focus of current manufacturers to overcome .

The homogeneity of smartphones drives the demand for innovation from manufacturers, and foldable screen phones have emerged as a result. At present, Huawei, Samsung, Rouyu and other manufacturers have officially released folding screen mobile phones, and Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo and other manufacturers have also come up with relevant prototypes of folding screen mobile phones. However, there are still many technical difficulties that need to be overcome when the folding screen needs to be mass-produced, and the application of FPC is one of them.

FPC has the characteristics of light and thin, bendable, winding, foldable, and high wiring density, which perfectly fits the development theme of lightness, thinness and miniaturization. In recent years, it has become the leader of the PCB subdivision industry. At present, in terms of FPC, it is not difficult to realize a flexible screen, mainly in the display and PCB rigid board. To achieve a foldable PCB requires a long R&D process, and it is also very challenging for electronic materials., We will always pay attention to this field and are willing to develop in depth from this aspect.

FPC is mainly used in mobile terminals, consumer electronics, automotive electronics, industrial control, medical, aerospace and military, etc. Among them, the mobile terminal category is the largest application field of FPC, especially the smart phone, which is also the field with the highest technical requirements for FPC, and will also lead the technical development direction of FPC in the future. The development trend of miniaturization and intelligence will promote flexible mobile phones to become a trend in the future. In a flexible screen mobile phone, since it needs to be folded multiple times and used in a large amount, the requirements for the flexible circuit board inside the mobile phone will be higher, and the corresponding use area will be further increased.

However, FPC is usually manufactured by batch process, so it is limited by the size of production equipment. In response to this problem, the increase in FPC applications in mobile phones will become an established trend, which also gives the FPC market a positive trend. However, FPC still faces manufacturing problems, such as large-size applications in folding screen mobile phones. Of course, there are corresponding solutions to these problems, but these solutions inevitably bring about an increase in cost. How to better control the cost of FPC can only be solved by mass production or technological upgrading.