14th Electronic Circuits World Convention

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Figure 9: KT action sequences. (Source: Happy Holden.) 

Figure 10: Selecting the right statistical tool. (Source: the NIST Engineering Statistics Handbook.) 

Figure 11: Automation strategy and methodology. (Source: Happy Holden.) 

Figure 12: PCB fab automation software interactions. (Source: Happy Holden.) 

“FPC Market and Related Technology Trend,” Hirofumi Matsumoto, Nippon Mektron 

Nippon Mektron is considered to be the largest printed circuit fabricator in 2015, with ZenDing Technology a close rival. This invited talk highlighted the flex circuit segment of the PCB market: 

• FPC market trends: The FPC market has grown by an average of 6.5% to $15.4B in 2015. It is expected to slow to 1.5% over the next seven years to $17.7B in 2022. Of that amount, $4.98B will be FPC assembly.
• FPC primary market and future markets: The mix has changed. In 2000, the applications were: mobile phone—22%, mobile camera—11%, hard discs—24%, digital audio—17%, packaging—13%, LCDS—5%, vehicle—4%, and optical—2%. In 2014, the distribution was: cellular phones—51%, LCD for phones—9%, camera for phones—4%, HDD—10%, automotive—9% computers—6%, cameras—6%, wearables—1% and other—4%
• Smartphone market and related FPC technologies (Figure 13): 17 different kinds of FPCs go into the smartphone and shipments exceeded 1.5 billion sets in 2016, growing to 1.84 billion by 2020 (Figure 14).
• Future FPC markets: The smartphone will continue to grow for medical, emergency, and other social network needs. Other growing markets will be automotive, virtual reality, drones, and IoT/M2M
• Wearable, 5G and IoT markets:  These growing markets will demand new materials better suited to their performance and environment. Washable materials, ultra-high-speed films like LCP (30-300 GHz), and disposable film or harsh environment films.

Figure 13: Smartphone growth (updated 2016). (Source: Matsumoto.) 

Figure 14: Smartphone flexible display trend. (Source: Matsumoto.) 

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