History Of Flexible Circuit Board

by John Y. Supplier of ffc cables

1. Introduction to FPC

FPC: Flexible Printed Circuit(Flex PCB). It is made of conductive circuit patterns by using light imaging pattern transfer and etching processes on the surface of a flexible substrate. The surface and inner layers of double-sided and multi-layer circuit boards are electrically connected to the inner and outer layers through metallized holes. , The surface of the circuit pattern is protected and insulated by PI and glue layer.

It is mainly divided into single-sided board, hollow board, double-sided board, multi-layer board, and rigid-flex board.

PCB: Printed Circuit Board, which means rigid printed circuit board.

2. Development trend

The FPC industry first emerged in Japan in about 2002. The FPC industry outside Japan began to sprout in 2003, expanded rapidly in 2005, and declined in 2006. The FPC industry fell to the bottom in mid-2007 and began to recover in 2008.

In 2005, the FPC industry had low thresholds and high profits, which attracted a large number of enterprises to enter.

In 2006, the competition became increasingly fierce, and the phenomenon of oversupply was very serious. Many companies had to drop prices again and again in order to survive, or even lose money. At the same time, downstream customers of the FPC industry, such as large EMS manufacturers, have added FPC departments and no longer outsourced FPC business, which has made the FPC industry worse.

2007 was a precarious year for the FPC industry. The first is the sharp decline in profits. The soft board manufacturer M-FLEX's net profit in fiscal year 2007 was only US$3 million, while its net profit in fiscal year 2006 reached US$40.4 million, and its net profit fell by 93%. Hong Kong-listed Giti Technology lost 29.8 million U.S. dollars in fiscal year 2007, while its 2006 fiscal year made a profit of 12.4 million U.S. dollars. The second is the decline in sales. Taiwan’s largest flexible board manufacturer, Jialianyi, had sales of 7.79 billion Taiwan dollars in 2004, and then declined for three consecutive years. In 2007, sales were 6.541 billion Taiwan dollars.

Once again, the gross profit margin declined. In 2004, Jialianyi's gross profit margin was 29%, which dropped to 12% in 2007. Young Poong, South Korea's largest FPC company, has divested the FPC business from the listed company to prevent investors from looking too ugly. Even if the big factory was like this, the small factory went bankrupt.

The numerous closures of small factories have brought opportunities to the FPC industry, which has been recovering since the beginning of 2008. However, the FPC industry is facing a new problem, which is the economic downturn. At the beginning of 2008, the global economy experienced a downward trend, with soaring oil prices, subprime mortgage crisis, and soaring food prices. The global economy has entered a downward channel, especially in emerging countries. The decline in demand for FPCs stems from consumer electronics. When the economy is in a downward channel, the first hit is the demand for consumer electronic products with non-rigid demand: including mobile phones, notebook computers, flat-screen TVs, LCD monitors, digital cameras, DV and other products.

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Third, the characteristics of flexible circuit boards

⒈ Short: short assembly time

All lines are configured, eliminating the need to connect redundant cables;

⒉ Small: smaller than PCB (hard board)

It can effectively reduce the product volume and increase the convenience of carrying;

⒊ Light: lighter than PCB (hard board)

Can reduce the weight of the final product;

4. Thin: thickness is thinner than PCB (hard board)

It can improve the softness and strengthen the three-dimensional assembly in a limited space.

Advantages of flexible circuit boards

Flexible printed circuit boards are printed circuits made of flexible insulating substrates, and have many advantages that rigid printed circuit boards do not have:

1. It can be bent, wound, and folded freely, can be arbitrarily arranged according to the space layout requirements, and can be moved and expanded in three-dimensional space, so as to achieve the integration of component assembly and wire connection;

2. The use of FPC can greatly reduce the volume and weight of electronic products, which is suitable for the development of electronic products in the direction of high density, miniaturization and high reliability. Therefore, FPC has been widely used in aerospace, military, mobile communications, laptop computers, computer peripherals, PDAs, digital cameras and other fields or products;

3. FPC also has the advantages of good heat dissipation and solderability, easy assembly and low overall cost, etc. The design of the combination of soft and hard also makes up for the slight deficiency of the flexible substrate in the component carrying capacity to a certain extent.

Disadvantages of flex PCB

1. High one-time initial cost: Since the flexible PCB is designed and manufactured for special applications, the initial circuit design, wiring and photographic masters require higher costs. Unless there is a special need to apply a flexible PCB, it is usually best not to use it in a small amount of application;

2. It is difficult to change and repair the flexible PCB: once the flexible PCB is made, it must be changed from the base map or the programmed light drawing program, so it is not easy to change. The surface is covered with a protective film, which must be removed before repairing and restored after repairing, which is a relatively difficult task;

3. Size is restricted: Flexible PCBs are usually manufactured by batch method when they are not yet common, so they cannot be made very long and wide due to the limitation of the size of the production equipment;

4. Improper operation and easy damage: Improper operation by the installation and connection personnel can easily cause damage to the flexible circuit, and its soldering and rework need to be operated by trained personnel.

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