July 30, 2002 -- While some products have trouble transitioning from a military economy (high performance at any cost) to broader commercial applications, flexible circuits have been remarkably successful at this transition. Today the bulk of flexible circuits are produced for commercial applications, although military production remains an important niche market. While, historically, flexible circuits were produced in large volumes by major U.S. electronics manufacturers such as IBM, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard and Texas Instruments, there has been a shift from captive production to open source production. Today, most of the flexible circuits produced in the U.S. are manufactured for the open market by firms with facilities dedicated to the task.
According to a soon-to-be-released study from Business Communications Company, Inc, RGB-269 New Technologies for Printed Circuit Boards, the global flexible circuit industry has a production level over $4 billion. The 2001 U.S. market for these goods has been estimated at $1,375 million, which should increase to $2,492 million in 2006 at an AAGR (annual average growth rate) of 12.6%.
Production of flexible circuits is often divided on the basis of the substrate used for the circuit. Two major substrates are used for flex circuitry, polyester and polyimide. Both of these goods have well-established markets and applications, and there is relatively little overlap between these applications. Consequently, these materials do not really compete against each other, and markets for these goods can be evaluated on a separate basis.
Polyimide dominates the production of flexible circuits in the U.S. today. This market is forecast to grow from $925 million in 2001 to $1,450 million in 2006 with an AAGR of 9.4%. The smaller polyester market is forecast to grow from $175 million in 2001 to $239 million in 2006 with an AAGR of 6.4%. Over the next five years, the dominance of polyimide in flexible circuit production should only continue.
Flexible circuits are nearly ubiquitous in modern life and are used in applications that range from jet fighters to cellular phones. Flexible circuits can be found in automobiles, computer peripherals, flat panel displays, medical devices, industrial controls, and other electronic goods. Electronic goods continue to play an increasingly important role in the global economy and are growing at rates much faster than mature industries. Furthermore, many mature applications, such as automobiles, are continuing to add flexible circuitry to their products, so there can be growth in flexible circuit production even in mature markets.
Flexible circuits have allowed electronics designers to cram more components into ever decreasing spaces. Thus, as electronics goods continue to shrink, yet gain in functionality, flexible circuits have played an increasingly important role. Not surprisingly, flexible circuits have had to improve their performance as well in order to keep pace. As electronic goods have continued to shrink, so too have the line widths of flexible circuits. A few years ago, 4-mil line widths were considered state-of-the-art. Today, a number of applications utilize flex circuits with line widths of 2 mils or less. But the line width will decrease further in the future.