What is PCB? And The impact of the communications industry on the PCB industry

In most electrical applications, PCB Communication circuit Board serve as the foundation. In practically all industrial and consumer electronics, PCBs link, and support electric components.

Communication Circuit board

From a business standpoint, the 5G sector has reached a high-growth phase and is one of the most investment-selective areas in 2019. From 2018 to 2019, we continued to watch the 5G industrial chain, publishing hundreds of tracking reports and seizing some investment possibilities. The 5G market is poised to enter a high-investment stage, based on current industry development. The globe is occupying the 5G commanding heights due to industrial features and future penetration of all corners. This is the source of the Huawei scandal.

Some changes in the 5G industrial chain have occurred in the last year as a result of the growth of 5G investment and technology. We'll rebuild the 5G industrial chain to locate the most profitable areas to better understand the investment potential. First, there's the performance field and the main publicly traded corporations. Communications (business/retail/computers/telecom) account for over 60% of the worldwide PCB market and are projected to continue to do so.

Due to the increasingly integrated and advanced features needed in contemporary automobiles, Printed communication circuit Board use in the automotive sector is predicted to be the fastest-growing market in 2021.

1. An Overview of the Industry

PCB is known as "the mother of electronic system goods" and is a very fundamental material used in electronic products. It has a wide range of uses, including communications, computers, consumer electronics, industrial control, medical, automotive electronics, aerospace, and many more.

It is extensively employed in wireless networks, transmission networks, data communications, and fixed network broadband in the area of Communication circuit Board. Backplanes, high-speed multilayer boards, high-frequency microwave boards, and multi-function metal substrates are all related items.

2. The state of the industry

According to available statistics, the worldwide communication PCB market accounted for 20.065 billion US dollars in 2018 or almost 30% of overall PCB production value. The worldwide base station PCB market area has grown to around 5–9 billion yuan in recent years, accounting for the communication PCB. The proportion is about 5-10%.

3. Industry development forecasts from 4G to 5G

According to broker estimations, a single 5G base station uses around 3.21m2 of PCB, which is 1.76 times that of a 4G base station (1.825m2). At the same time, the performance need for PCB is higher due to the increased frequency of 5G communication, hence 5G The PCB for the base station is more expensive per unit than the 4G base station. The value of a single base station PCB in the 5G era is around three times that of the 4G era.

Furthermore, while 5G's spectrum is wider, the base station's coverage is smaller. According to calculations, the domestic 5G base station will be 1.2-1.5 times larger than the 4G base station, and more tiny base stations will be required, therefore the 5G base station will be necessary. The overall number will be far higher than 4G. The new 5G macro base station is estimated to be 1.5 times the peak of 15G development in 15 years during the peak phase of 5G construction in 2023. Based on our estimates, we estimate that the communication PCB sector for base stations will be worth between 5 and 20 billion yuan in the next several years. The base station PCB sector has surely risen in recent years, compared to a market of 5 billion to 9 billion in the 4G era.

4. Investment advice from the industry

Wireless networks (communication base stations), transmission networks, data communication, and fixed network broadband are the four primary applications of communication PCB. Except for wireless networks, the industry lacks certain data for specific applications, hence this analysis focuses on wireless networks. That is, the base station utilizes the PCB as a starting point for analyzing the communication PCB industry's future.

The future growth rate in general, the transmission network industry PCB will also rise with the building of 5G. The data communication PCB is mostly reliant on the completion of 5G network construction in the other three applications. The future industry need cannot be overestimated as a more promising use in the 5G sector (5G creates vast data, and data center demand grows).

Manufacturer and assembly of communication PCBs

Communication PCB Communication circuit Board are commonly employed in wireless networks, transmission networks and ks, and data transfers in the area of communications. Also available is fixed-line broadband. Backplanes, high-speed multilayer boards, high-frequency microwave boards, and multi-function metal substrates are all PCB items that are related.

As a reaction to the proliferation of 5G communication, the 5G air outlet drives the PCB to implement yet another wave of technological advancements in communication, moving from 1G to 5G:

• Each new generation of communication technology has brought about revolutionary changes to terminal devices. Which have led to the redefinition of goods and caused the whole industrial chain to be reconstructed and significantly altered.
• In the field of communications, PCB requirements are broken down into subcategories such as communication devices and mobile terminals, for example. The primary applications for communication equipment are the transmission infrastructures of wired and wireless networks. Included in this package are several communication equipment like base stations, routers, and switches. The usage of high-layer printed circuit boards (PCBs) is common in communication equipment; boards with 8-16 layers account for around 42 percent of all layers. The most often used types of mobile terminals are HDI and flexible boards.
• The introduction of 5G technology is tightly intertwined with the construction of massive data centers. The server will expand, and PCB growth will follow.
• Because of the very high volume of traffic that is managed by the data center and the stringent demands placed on the PCB's transmission speed. The requirements for the number of layers and materials on the PCB are expected to continue to increase. Under these conditions, there will be a significant increase in the demand for high-end communication boards.

Features of the 5G communication PCB construction:

The value of communication boards for a single base station will greatly grow as a result of the high-speed and high-frequency characteristics of 5G, and the requirement for communication boards will be further pushed by the development of 5G base stations when those 5G base stations are established. To begin, the number of 5G base stations has already surpassed the number of 4G base stations that are already in operation by a significant margin. There will certainly be an increase in demand for communication PCB boards as a result of the deployment of a certain number of micro base stations to cover the blind spot area.

In the context of industrial control, communication technology may take the form of either wired or wireless connections.

In the industrial sector, examples of wired communication equipment include:

• Serial communication, professional bus type communication, industrial Ethernet communication, and equipment to convert between several communication protocols.
• Wireless access points (APs), bridges, network cards, lightning arresters, antennas, and other devices are common.

The high frequency of the RF component and the high digital signal rate of the baseband component demand a lot of material. In addition, plates with ceramic substrates are needed for certain areas of the structure. In most situations, the board will have hundreds of layers of through-hole plates, requiring back-drilling.

Single panels, double panels, and multi-layer boards continue to be the most popular types of communication equipment requirements.

Read more: PCB assembly for power industry

Conclusion

The introduction of 5G signals the beginning of the full interconnectivity of all objects in the world. The implementation of 5G will result in the total interconnection of everything on the earth. With the advent of the 5G era, printed circuit boards (PCBs) used in communication will be in for a treat. There are several different ways that PCBs may be categorized. At the present, the types of PCBs that are employed the most often are multi-layer boards and FPCs. 5G, smartphone improvements, the rise of the Internet of Things, and the rising complexity of vehicle electronics are projected to effect future application situations.