FPC/FFC connector sought after

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in the United States earlier this year, large companies such as Samsung, LG, and Intel all launched high-profile flexible screen products, making the flexible screen one of the focal points. With the rise of wearable devices, the demand for flexible circuit boards has further increased.

According to statistics, as of 2016, the global output value of flexible circuit boards will reach 13.2 billion U.S. dollars, and the compound annual growth rate will be 7.5%. This will become one of the fastest growing sub-sectors in the PCB industry, and its market share in the total PCB market will further increase. To 18.4%. Flexible circuit boards are widely used in consumer electronics, automotive electronics, computers and peripherals, industrial control equipment, communications, military and aerospace, home appliances and other fields.

However, from the perspective of growth momentum in the past two years, the increase in demand for flexible circuit boards mainly comes from the strong drive of consumer electronics such as smart phones, tablet computers, and touch products. In addition, flexible printed circuit boards (FPCs) are used in wearable devices. The proportion of usage in China will also increase.

“The areas of large-area connection between display screens and motherboards, such as smart phones, tablet PCs, and wearable devices, which require compact and thin electronic products and TVs, are expected to be connected in the future by flexible printed circuit boards (FPC) and flexible flat cable (FFC). The proportion will continue to increase." Some respondents said firmly.

According to the reporter, FPC and FFC both have thin and flexible folding properties, and therefore are the most popular connection schemes for wearable devices. The difference between the two is that FPC uses chemical etching to treat FCCL (Flexible Copper Clad) to get different single-sided, double-sided and multi-layered flexible circuit boards with different circuit layouts. For example, Apple has used FPC to connect to New iPad. The device replaces the earlier cable, and the FFC cable uses a flat copper wire conductor sandwiched between two upper and lower insulating foils. The two manufacturing processes are different. In contrast, the FFC cost is lower.

At present, international connector companies including TE Connectivity, Molex, FCI, JAE, 3M, etc. are all developing “small-size” and “flexible” FPC/FFC connector products. It is reported that the international mainstream connector suppliers still use the United States, Japan, and some Taiwan manufacturers for the short term, and the mainstream distance is 0.3mm high-end connectors. In mainland China, there are nearly a thousand FPC/FFC connector manufacturers, but due to factors such as development time, technological progress, and narrow market space in the early days, the sales volume of a single company is very small and the market is extremely fragmented, failing to enter the international competition. . Among them, DeRun Electronics, Lixin Precision and other manufacturers are expected to be able to achieve rapid growth in the future based on market outbreaks and large customer bases through mergers and acquisitions of FPC/FFC.

In addition, in terms of flexible materials and flexible circuit boards, domestic companies such as Shenzhen Huicheng, Shuangxing New Material Company, Tianjin Purin Corporation, and Shengyi Technology Company are also stepping up their technological investment and layout, hoping to adopt smart phones, tablet PCs and computers. The upsurge of wearable equipment won the cup.

From the perspective of market applications, FPC connectors are mainly 0.4 mm and 0.3 mm pitch products, and 0.2 mm pitch products have also started to be used in small quantities. Most respondents stated that height and pin spacing are the two most important directions for the future development of FPC connectors, especially the latter. In the consumer product market, on the one hand, products tend to be miniaturized. On the other hand, a large number of various functional modules are continuously integrated into the system, and the number of signals to be transmitted is also increasing. This requires more pins. Requires FPC connectors to have more contact numbers, even smaller spacing, and a more compact form factor, ultimately achieving high-density integration goals.

Overall, the connector is an integral part of the constitution of the consumer electronics PCB board but not the core device. Therefore, the replacement of the product is not as fast as the main control IC, and the gold content of the technology is not as high as that of the baseband and the master control chip. So high, but constantly refined demand for end products will also promote its technological innovation, from upstream materials, to design and manufacturing, to the final application of distribution to the terminal, will quickly respond to market demand in front of new market opportunities.