As we all know, consumer trends are always changing and new trends can hit the market and take off extremely quickly. As the consumer market is so fast-paced and ever-changing, this can have a massive impact on the PCB market. Printed circuit boards are extremely versatile and so they can be altered to change how they are used and manufactured. While there are bound to be many new technologies changing the PCB market in the future, below we are taking you through some of the most exciting ones right now that PCB designers need to know and what the major tech trends are right now that will make sure the PCB market continues to prosper for a long time to come.
High Density Interconnect and Miniaturisation
Many people will have worked on computers before that have occupied entire walls. Now, in this new digital age, there are calculator watches that have even more computing powers and smartphones are on a whole different scale. Manufacturing in general is going through a period of seriously exciting new innovation and much of this is due to the fact that everything is getting smaller, but improving the quality. For example, computers have become a lot smaller than they previously used to be, and they are also much better functioning.
New Materials and Green Manufacturing
Just like most other things, PCB manufacturing needs to keep up with the rest of the world and this includes using cleaner and more sustainable production techniques and methods. PCB manufacturers are frequently in the firing line for crossroads in legislation and industry standards such as the introduction of lead-free solder for energy-intensive manufacturing processes. Since then, the industry has had to find something new to replace this with. However, there are many elements that launch PCBs further than other manufacturers as they use fiberglass as a substrate to create them which is an environmentally friendly material suited to high rates of data transfer.
Wearable Technology
Over the years, PCBs have been getting thinner and thinner, whilst still allowing for greater complexity to be achieved. Consumer electronics have been a huge driving force in the PCB manufacturing world and one of the biggest new markets that PCB designers have to adapt to is wearable technology. Just like a smartphone, wearable technologies need printed circuit boards but what makes this unique is that they need to have an even greater efficiency in their design, which wouldn’t have been possible with previous PCB designs.
Technology in Healthcare
One of the biggest developments in modern technology that has had the most impact is within the medical industry. Technology has allowed lots of new things to be introduced here which make it run more efficiently such as having health care apps and storing patient records in the cloud. PCBs are also influenced by medical technologies and one of the biggest advancements here that we are seeing is camera sizes. Cameras that are being swallowed or inserted need to be extremely small but provide a high-quality picture, and so PCBs have had to improve their technological advancements to accommodate this.
