New report explores PCB technology trends

22 July 2015 News

The 2014 edition of IPC’s biennial ‘PCB Technology Trends’ study has been published and is now available. The survey-based study shows how global printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturers are meeting today’s technology demands and looks at the changes expected by 2019 that will affect PCB fabricators and their suppliers of materials and equipment.

Based on data collected from 158 companies worldwide, the 173-page study presents the aggregate data segmented by application for five key segments: computers and telecommunications, consumer electronics, industrial and automotive electronics, medical electronics, and military and aerospace electronics.

The study covers such issues as clock speed, heat dissipation, operation cycles, product life expectancy, environmental operating range, lamination cycles, board thickness, layer counts, line width and spacing, via diameters, aspect ratios, use of embedded technologies, surface-mount land dimensions, I/O pitch, test density, recyclable content, component size, and numbers of leads, solder joints and components per board area.

Among the many interesting findings, the study reports that nearly half of the responding PCB manufacturers for computer and telecommunications applications expect their highest clock speeds in 2019 to exceed 25 GHz. This segment had the highest clock speed predictions.

The military and aerospace segment reported that heat dissipation is a design-limiting factor in half of their devices currently, which is the highest of the five applications studied, and they expect that percentage to rise in the next four years. More than one third of responding companies in the military and aerospace segment are currently embedding passive components in their boards. Embedding of passive and active components is expected to increase substantially by 2019 for all five applications studied.

‘PCB Technology Trends 2014’ is available free to companies that participated in the survey, and can be purchased by IPC members as well as non-members.

For more information visit www.ipc.org/pcb-tech-trends-2014

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