5G expands the FPC market space and increases the demand for electromagnetic shielding

When electronic equipment works, it does not want to be interfered by external electromagnetic wave, nor does it want to emit electromagnetic wave to interfere with external equipment and cause radiation harm to human body, so it is necessary to block the propagation path of electromagnetic wave, this is electromagnetic shielding, electromagnetic shielding film is made of special materials shielding body,  Products that can effectively block electromagnetic interference based on the working principle of reflection or absorption of electromagnetic waves.  There are mainly conductive adhesive, metal alloy and microneedle type three structures.  

Conductive film is a kind of lead-free connection material, which provides mechanical connection and electrical connection between components and circuit boards. It has the characteristics of high peel strength, excellent conductivity, good welding resistance and customized structural design, and is one of the core packaging materials of wireless communication terminals.  

Electromagnetic shielding film and conductive films directly downstream industry mainly for the FPC (flexible printed circuit board, belong to a kind of printed circuit board PCB, with the high density of wiring, light weight, thin thickness, flexible and high flexibility incomparable advantage over other types of printed circuit board) industry, further downstream applications including consumer electronics, automotive electronics, communications equipment and so on.  FPC market capacity growth, capacity tends to move east  

The direct downstream industry of electromagnetic shielding film and conductive film is FPC, and the growth of FPC market directly determines the growth of related upstream materials.  

From the perspective of industry space, on the one hand, the 5G era of high frequency and high speed communication promotes the demand for high frequency FPC and the increase of FPC caused by the change of internal structure of domestic machines; on the other hand, the innovation of OLED, 3DSensor, wireless charging and other terminals will bring new increase of FPC, thus helping to further expand the output value of global FPC.  

From the perspective of the products of Apple, the leading company with the largest consumption of FPC, driven by innovative applications, the consumption of FPC in iPhone series has been increasing since iPhone 4 in 2010. In recent years, the proportion of FPC in the output value of the whole PCB has also been greatly improved compared with that in 2010.  

Looking to the future, the trend of 5G and consumer electronics innovation will continue, and the market space of FPC will further expand, which will benefit companies in related industries.  From the perspective of industrial pattern, thanks to the cost advantage and the local market demand, the proportion of domestic manufacturers will steadily increase. In the next few years, the growth rate of the output value of PCB/FPC in mainland China will exceed that of the global PCB/FPC.  

According to Prismark, the Chinese mainland accounted for 51% of PCB production in 2017, up from 38% in 2010.  

Prismark also expects China's PCB output to grow at a compound rate of 3.7 percent from 2017 to 2022, outpacing global growth of 3.2 percent.  The application of 5G new technology will increase the demand for electromagnetic shielding  

The application of MassiveMIMO and beam forming and other new technologies in THE 5G era will effectively improve spectrum efficiency and communication quality, but the significant increase in the number of antennas and the significant reduction in the size of antennas in high frequency band put forward higher requirements for anti-interference performance.  

At the same time, the future 5G frequency is expected to reach more than 6GHz. In order to support the high frequency band above 6GHz, a new wireless access technology other than LTE 5GNR is needed, and this new technology will coexist with LTE technology supporting less than 6GHz. When the two transceiver links work at the same time, mutual interference will occur in many frequency band combinations.  New requirements for electromagnetic shielding materials are put forward.  FPC in electronic products, as the connection line in electronic devices, mainly plays the role of conducting current and transmitting signals.  

When signal transmission lines are distributed in the outermost layer of the FPC, in order to avoid signal distortion caused by electromagnetic interference in the signal transmission process, the FPC presses an integrated conductive layer (electromagnetic shielding film) after the covering film is pressed to shield the external electromagnetic interference.  

It is expected that in the 5G era of each FPC, the area covered by electromagnetic shielding film and the amount used will continue to increase, so as to better reduce electromagnetic interference.