The Future of PCBs

Challenges inherent to designing and manufacturing even more miniature and complex boards and meeting the escalating demands from increasing the number of pins in a chip, the growth in high speed serial data streaming technologies, the use of bussed interfaces and clock rates higher than 400 MHZ, among other particulars, are examined in the study. To meet these needs, the industry is now using Microvias and High Density Interconnects as well as mixed signal hybrid circuits and utilizing more sophisticated and multipronged design and development activities. The report provides details on these market facets as well as global revenues through 2012 for HDI/Microvia PCBs and the same for PCBs categorized by the sector they are intended for, such as telecommunications, PC hardware and peripherals and examines the PCB industry today and the challenges the industry faces tomorrow in emulating the innovations and efficiency being developed by many of the end markets they serve. The growth of PCBs is also being largely driven by the large use of multi-layered, flexible PCBs. In the report, the growth rate and revenues for PCBs are broken down into a multitude of categories, including whether they are built on rigid, flex, or rigid-flex boards, are single, double and multi-layer and which type of circuit design, analog, digital or mixed-signal, the board is intended for. The study also examines and provides growth rates and revenues for PCBs using different substrates such as Alumina, FR4, Beryllium Oxide, BT-Epoxy, Polyimide or PTFE/woven fiberglass. The fate of PCB industry is closely tied with that of the overall electronics and semiconductor equipment market and the industry is easily influenced by competition as well as fluctuations in market demand. The report examines these factors and gives and analysis of future growth within the industry due to these influences. PCB regional production and usage analysis of North America, Europe, the Asia Pacific Region, and the rest of the world is provided, noting the revenues brought in for PCB production in each region yearly through 2012 as well as the expenditures on PCBs for each region during the same time period.