High-bandwidth and high-speed 5G communication applications have become one of the major themes of this year’s COMPUTEX, which also hints at the close proximity to a new generation of 5G communications. Due to this trend, a wave of PCB raw material supply chain enterprises will be reshuffled.

 

       Career Technology has received orders for Apple’s iPhone FPC antennas this year. The company regards this as a transformative opportunity and wishes to immediately venture into the huge market demand for 5G communication FPC through the production of FPC antennas. In fact, FPC antennas are not a new technology as iPhone products have used them before, but in the evolution of wireless communication products from 3G to 4G, and even upcoming 5G communications, product specifications have more stringent requirements. The only way to achieve the needs of high-frequency and high-speed transmission is through FPC technology.
 

       Career Technology’s use of LCP substrates to produce FPC is only an example. Other soft and rigid PCB upstream raw material plants, such as fiberglass cloth manufacturer Fulltech Fiber Glass, copper foil manufacturer Co-Tech, toner cartridge manufacturer Cybertek, FCCL manufacturers TUC and ITEQ, and even TAIFlex and other manufacturers are also trying hard to cut into the demand for raw materials in the field of 5G communications.

 

       TAIFLEX has not entered the LCP material market but has focused on manufacturing Modified PI substrates with competitive price advantages. It is expected to aggressively fight for the non-Apple mobile phone market starting next year. TUC has adopted an approach to cooperate with Hitachi Chemicals, Japan to develop another production line in Taiwan that can produce automobile radars and copper foil substrate products for use in high-frequency and high-speed communications. It is expected to mass produce them by the end of this year.
 

       The world’s high-speed 5G communications era has entered a countdown period, and the head end equipment manufacturers and terminal handset manufacturers are all striving to seize this business opportunity. As the market demand in the era of 5G communications is changing and likely to result in a massive reshuffle of the original material supply chain, upstream PCB manufacturers are facing tremendous stress and taking a positive move toward preventing themselves from being eliminated in the course of the rapid transition of products and an inability to keep up with the industrial trends. (News source: cnYES)