Flexible printed circuit (FPC) is a printed circuit board made of flexible substrate. As an important category in PCB, it has high reliability and excellent flexibility. Compared with other printed circuit boards, FPC features higher wiring density, lighter weight, thinner thickness, higher bendability and flexibility, and is thus increasingly popular amid the miniaturization trend of smart terminals.
 

　　
 

　　In recent years, global FPCs have been developing toward the ultra refinement trend of thinner line width, dense wiring and exquisite workmanship. From the perspective of downstream application structure, smartphones and tablets account for 29% and 22% respectively of the FPC market, representing the majority of the FPC downstream application market. With the rapid sales volume increase of automobiles and wearable devices in recent years, the demand for FPC in consumer electronics has been rising.。
 

 

　　Demand from smartphones is the main driver for FPC growth. In 2018, global smartphone shipments reached 1.4 billion units. Currently, smartphones have entered an era of existing market distribution as the demographic dividend has gradually disappeared. Competition in the downstream smartphone market has become fiercer in such an era. With the RF modularization and miniaturization of smartphones in the 5G era, and the emergence of functions of folding and extension modules, the use of FPC for a single unit has been increasing in the process of functional diversification of smartphones, and the demand of FPC will continue to increase in the future.
 

 

　　FPC is a preferred connecting device for wearable devices because of its light weight, thinness and flexibility. As the global wearable technologies become mature and its application prospect gets broader over recent years, it is considered to be a product with large market size after smartphones. In 2018, the global shipments of wearable devices reached 172,150,000 units, representing a year-on-year increase of 27.5%. As one of the main materials, FPC is expected to be stimulated by downstream demand and become one of the biggest beneficiaries of the booming market of wearable devices.　　

Reprinted from www.huaon.com