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MARCH 2019 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 95 Mainland China was still underway, and Main- land China would play a more important role in the global PCB industry. 3. Which are the best race tracks in the industry? The industry believes that 5G and automo- tive will be the main drivers of PCB growth in the future. New energy vehicles will continue to boost the demand for PCB for automobiles, and demands for PCBs will be driven by 5G communication infrastructure, which is ex- pected to rise soon. 4. How will technology evolve? Information strongly suggests that the com- munications and automotive sectors will use more HDI, and HDI in cellphones and wear- able electronics will become more complicated represented by SLP. In addition, the trends to- ward double-sided blind holes, BGA blind hole filling, multilayer blind holes, HDI high-order and soft-hard bonding boards are becoming more and more obvious. The line width re- quirement will be 35 μm or even 25 μm. The demand from new energy vehicles for large- sized circuit boards is also rising, and it needs a variety of high-frequency, high-speed, and environmental protection materials together to make it work. If material development cannot keep up with the development of technical de- signs, enterprises will need to invest more time in R&D and innovation. 5. What is the current status on the materials side? Domestic manufacturers already have con- siderable capacity and technological strength in the fields of copper-clad laminate, copper foil, PCB chemicals, etc. The situation of mate- rial monopoly dominated by the United States and Japan is constantly improving, but in the field of high-end raw materials, both coun- tries still have significant advantages. Due to the rising prices and environmental restric- Figure 2: 2018 HKPCA PCB market survey report.