In 5G era, PCB for communication will also usher in a good time

The download speed is 1.25GB per second, a high-definition movie per second.
Compared with 5G, our current 4G is the real version of the tortoise-rabbit race.
The arrival of 5G is the beginning of the real interconnection of all things. 5G will complete the interconnection of all things in the world. With the advent of 5G era, PCB for communication will also usher in a good time!
PCB, or Printed Circuit Board, is known as the "mother of electronic products". All electronic devices or products need PCB boards to keep the downstream demand stable. The development level of PCB industry can reflect the development speed and technology level of electronic information industry in a country or region to a certain extent.
According to Prismark data, the global PCB industry has maintained a compound annual growth rate of about 4% in the past 10 years. In 2017, the global PCB output value was 58.8 billion US dollars, with an annual growth rate of 8.60%, while China's PCB output value was 29.7 billion US dollars, with an annual growth rate of 9.70%, which was higher than that of the world. From the regional distribution of PCB output value, the focus of PCB industry has been shifting to Asia. China has become the most important player of PCB in the world, accounting for more than 50% of global PCB output value.
The upstream of PCB is made of various raw materials, including copper clad laminate, copper foil, copper ball, semi-curable sheet, gold salt, ink, dry film and other chemical materials. The main raw materials of flexible circuit board include covering film, electromagnetic film and so on.
Downstream is mainly used in computer, communication equipment, industrial control, automotive electronics, consumer electronics and aerospace and other fields, covering a very wide range. Among them, communication, computer and consumer electronics are the three most important application terminals in the PCB industry. The proportion of demand is 27%, 27% and 14% respectively, which directly affects the development of the upstream PCB industry.
The Big Winner in 5G Era-PCB
(1) Base Station PCB's Volume and Price Rise in 5G Era
Firstly, the number of 5G base stations will increase compared with the number of 4G. According to the open data of China's three major telecom operators, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom will add 400,000, 380,000 and 340,000 new 4,000 base stations respectively in 2016, bringing the total number to 1.51 million, 89,000 and 740,000, totaling about 3.14 million. It is estimated that the number of small base stations will be more than 10 times of the current base station market in the future.
Secondly, because of the high-speed and high-frequency characteristics of 5G, the value of the communication board will also be greatly improved for a single base station. On the one hand, with the increase of 5G band and frequency, the number of RF front-end components increases dramatically, and Massive MIMO is assembled on AAU, the area of PCB on AAU increases greatly, the number of layers increases, and the added value of antenna AAU transfers to PCB board and copper clad board; on the other hand, with the increase of 5G transmission data, the data processing capability of base station BBU has higher requirements. BBU will use PCB with larger area and higher layers. High-speed and high-frequency materials are needed for the base materials. Conservatively, the PCB value of a single 5G macro base station is more than twice that of 4G.
(2) Lightweight demand for 5G mobile phones, tablets and other devices drives FPC market space to improve
IDC predicts that the first batch of 5G smartphones will be on the market in the second half of 2019. By 2020, the shipment of 5G smartphones will reach 7% of the total number of smartphone shipments (about 212 million), and 18% by 2022.
According to industry research, there are at least 20 FPC numbers in the new Apple mobile phone, with a value of more than $20, while tablet products are expected to be further thinned and will use a large number of FPC products. At the same time, leading domestic brands such as Huawei, OPPO and vivo have also increased the consumption of FPC to 10-12 yuan.
In 2016, the global market size of FPC increased to 85.2 billion yuan, and the Chinese market size of FPC increased to 31.6 billion yuan. By 2021, the Chinese FPC market is expected to reach 51.6 billion yuan, with a compound growth rate of 10%.
(3) Automobile electronics, electrification and intellectualization will bring incremental market space for PCB
First, intelligent driving-automobile electronization: automobile electronization will lead to the increase of PCB usage. In 2010, automobile electronics accounted for about 30% of the total BOM, which is expected to increase to 50% by 2030. At present, the usage area of PCB for mid-end vehicle is about 0.5-0.7 square meters, and that of PCB for economy vehicle is 0.3-0.4 square meters. Assuming the average price of PCB is 1000 yuan/square meters, the average bicycle value is about 800 yuan. The usage area of PCB for luxury vehicle is about 2.5-3 square meters, and the bicycle value is more than 2500 yuan. With the deepening of automobile electronization, the demand area of PCB for automobile will be increased. It will grow gradually. In addition, the advanced driving assistance system ADAS of intelligent driving also needs a large number of PCBs.
Secondly, new energy vehicles: the amount of PCB used by new energy vehicles has been greatly increased compared with traditional vehicles. If the initial estimate of PCB used for bicycles is 3 square meters, assuming the average price of PCB is 1000 yuan per square meter, the new energy vehicles corresponding to PCB will have a new market scale of 2.855 billion yuan, 3.96billion yuan and 5.430 billion yuan in 2018-2020.
(4) Cloud Computing
Data center promotes the demand for high-end PCB products such as high frequency and high speed. At present, the global data center is developing towards high speed and large capacity. According to IDC statistics, the global data center market reached 45.2 billion US dollars in 2016, with a growth rate of 17%. China's data center grew faster than the global pace, with a scale of 71.5 billion yuan in 2016 and a growth rate of 37%.
5G! It's officially coming.
5G, you are one G more than 4G, but this G means different technical meanings!