TendForce indicated that the PCB market will fall a further 5.2 per cent this year to $79 billion.

However, the automotive PCB market is set to grow by 14 per cent to $10.5 billion, or 13 per cent of the total PCB market, at a CAGR of 12 per cent over 2022-6.

Adoption of electric vehicles is an important growth driver for the automotive PCB market, given that the average PCB value of a BEV (battery electric vehicle) is approximately five to six times that of a conventional fuel vehicle. More than half of the PCBs are installed in the control system of a BEV, which contains the battery management system connected via a wiring harness.

The increasing popularity of lightweighting in vehicles is leading to a gradual shift towards the use of flexible printed circuits, which will further increase the number of PCBs in electronic control systems.

Automotive PCBs tend to be predominantly 4- to 8-layer boards; autopilot systems tend to use more expensive HDI boards, which are three times as expensive.

HDI boards for light detection and ranging systems (equipped in L3 and more advanced autonomous driving systems) can cost tens of dollars and are a major contributor to future value growth in the automotive PCB market.

Layer 4 to 8 boards are expected to account for around 40 per cent of total automotive PCBs by 2023, falling to 32 per cent by 2026.

In contrast, the proportion of HDI boards is expected to increase from 15 per cent to 20 per cent and the proportion of FPC boards from 17 per cent to 20 per cent.

In addition, the proportions of thick copper and RF boards will increase from 8 per cent and 8.8 per cent to 9.5 per cent and 10.8 per cent, respectively, while the proportion of lower-priced single- and double-layer boards is expected to fall from 11.2 per cent to 7.7 per cent.