5G commercial FPC industry is expected to welcome the new large-scale expansion and upgrading

With 3GPP officially releasing THE SA scheme of 5G standard, and the three major operators' increasing layout in 5G RESEARCH and development, testing, industrial chain and application, the commercial use of 5G has entered the full sprint period.  Industry insiders said that as the commercial period of 5G is approaching, it will drive the sharp expansion of the market scale of relevant industries, and the FPC (flexible circuit board) industry, as an important component of mobile phones, will also get a great opportunity for development, and is expected to usher in a new round of large-scale expansion and upgrading.  

According to the White Paper on the Economic and Social Impact of 5G released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, 5G is expected to drive China's direct economic output of 6.3 trillion yuan and economic added value of 2.9 trillion yuan by 2030.  

In the eyes of industry insiders, the advent of 5G era is also expected to open a new round of investment boom.  FPC is one of them.  According to the data, the total output value of global PCB in 2014 was usd 57.437 billion, among which the total output value of FPC reached USD 11.476 billion.  With continued growth in applications such as smartphones, tablets, storage services and automotive electronics, FPC's total output value is expected to reach us $13.832 billion by 2019, representing a compound growth rate of about 3.8%.  

"The rapid development of 5G will also bring the upgrading of new consumer electronics.  Huawei and ZTE, for example, have begun experimenting with local area networks in major cities, which will surely drive the upgrading of mobile phones.  As the terminal manufacturers begin to develop and test the next generation of products, there is a new demand for upstream industry supply.  Li Xiaohua, chairman of Shangda Electronics, said that currently, Shangda Electronics has made a key layout in 5G-related module technology and capacity to ensure maximum cooperation with downstream terminal manufacturers in 5G commercial product level research and development and testing.  

Many industry insiders also said that with the accelerated development of 5G, domestic enterprises represented by Shangda Electronics, Dongshan Precision, Helitai, etc., are expected to achieve accelerated rise.  

However, it is worth mentioning that in the FPC field, compared with companies from Japan and South Korea, domestic companies have many shortcomings in technology, research and development capacity, market share and other aspects.  Li Xiaohua also admitted that some FPC enterprises in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan started earlier, accumulated relatively long experience in technology and production, and also occupied a certain advantageous position in the whole industry chain, as well as the supporting aspects of customers and suppliers.  "However, the current process capability index of Shangda Electronics is above 1.33, and the target for 2018 is 1.67.  The LAR value of the client (the qualified rate of customers' random incoming inspection) is above 98%, and the DPM value (the defective rate of customers' input products) is within 200PBM.  For example, the line width and line distance, the latest line can achieve 35 microns, the minimum diameter can achieve 50 microns.  In 2017, Shangda Electronics put into the first COF production line in Pizhou, Jiangsu Province. After putting into production, the line width can be about 10 microns.  At present, there are only three companies in the world that can achieve 10 micron line width.  "There is not a big gap between Domestic FPC companies and foreign companies in terms of how to make thinner lines on thinner materials and how to improve the flexibility and bending resistance of products."