Rigid-Flex PCB Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends and Forecast (2026 - 2031)

Global Rigid-Flex PCB Market Trends and Insights

Surging Demand for Ultra-Thin Foldable Consumer Devices

Samsung shipped 12 million foldables in 2025, and Chinese brands added another 8 million, pushing the global installed base above 35 million units. Designs require bend radii of 1.5 mm and boards that endure more than 200,000 fold cycles, forcing a shift to polyimide films with elongation-at-break above 40%. The 2025 launches of the Google Pixel Fold and Motorola Razr validated the format, prompting collaborative PCB-display layouts that route high-speed differential pairs through flex zones without impedance jumps. Laser-drilled microvias and rolled-annealed copper foils that hold ductility under strain command a 20-30% premium, yet device makers accept the cost to keep products slim. Momentum around augmented-reality functions is likely to add even more flex regions inside future handsets, underpinning robust unit growth for the Rigid-Flex Printed Circuit Board market.

Rapid Electrification of Automobiles and EV Battery Management Systems

Tesla integrated rigid-flex boards into its 4680 packs, trimming interconnect length by 35% and improving thermal paths.^{[1]Wall Street Journal, “Tesla 4680 Battery Integration,” wsj.com} General Motors is committed to implementing rigid-flex monitoring for all Ultium batteries by 2027 to reduce assembly steps and connector failures. BYD’s Blade Battery achieved a 15% weight reduction after adopting rigid-flex layouts. Over-the-air updates for battery firmware now travel through CAN-FD or Ethernet lines embedded in the flex stack. With global EV output targeting 20 million vehicles by 2028, the automotive industry is poised to become the second-largest segment of the Rigid-Flex Printed Circuit Board market, after the aerospace industry.

Migration to 5 G and High-Speed Data Centers

Massive-MIMO radios route RF traces from baseband to antenna arrays on rigid-flex substrates, improving link budgets by 0.3 dB compared with cable harnesses.^{[2]IEEE, “Massive MIMO Base Station PCB Requirements,” ieee.org} Ericsson and Nokia both standardized the design for mid-band units launched in 2025. Hyperscale clouds are adopting liquid-crystal-polymer layers with dielectric constants below 3.0 to support 800-gigabit Ethernet channels. Although LCP costs roughly twice as much as polyimide, premium switches justify the outlay. Edge-computing nodes and small-cell radios extend demand to millions of additional boards, representing a USD 1.2 billion opportunity by 2030.

Regionalization of PCB Supply Chains in the U.S. and EU

The U.S. CHIPS and Science Act steered USD 3 billion toward advanced substrates, spurring TTM to allocate USD 150 million for a North Carolina rigid-flex line opening in 2027. Europe’s EUR 43 billion Chips Act enabled ATandS to break ground on a EUR 300 million (USD 330 million) plant in Austria for 20-layer automotive boards. While Western capacity remains a fraction of Asia, defense primes and automotive OEMs now prize traceable domestic supply over unit cost. Labor cost headwinds persist, yet incentives and export-control compliance reinforce a gradual move of the Rigid-Flex Printed Circuit Board market production closer to end users.

Volatile Polyimide Film and Copper Foil Pricing

Polyimide film prices climbed 18% between mid-2024 and early 2025 after outages reduced capacity by 15,000 t. Spot copper-foil quotes jumped from USD 12/kg to USD 16/kg as EV battery demand tightened supply. Fabricators operating on 60-day contracts saw margins compress by 200-300 basis points before repricing. Mid-tier Asian suppliers even reported negative earnings in late 2025. Vertical integration surged, with several fabricators buying equity in film producers to lock allocations. Price swings remain a near-term drag on the Rigid-Flex PCB market until new capacity stabilizes raw-material flows.

Yield Challenges in Ultra-Thin Multilayer Fabrication

First-pass yields for boards thinner than 0.3 mm still hover below 70% as delamination, via-barrel cracks, and impedance drift drive scrap. Sequential lamination demands ±25 µm alignment, forcing investment in laser registration and climate-controlled rooms. Each automated-optical-inspection module adds USD 5-8 million to line capital, a hurdle for smaller firms. AI control algorithms now tweak lamination temperature in real time, boosting yields 8-12 percentage points and cutting annual scrap by up to USD 3 million per site.^{[3]Cadence Design Systems, “AI-Driven Defect Detection,” cadence.com} Even so, new entrants need 18-24 months to stabilize their processes, which is muting near-term capacity additions in the market.

Segment Analysis

By Substrate Material: Polyimide Continues to Dominate Performance-Driven Applications

Polyimide accounted for 42.87% of the Rigid-Flex PCB market share in 2025 and is projected to expand at a 6.53% CAGR through 2031, preserving its lead thanks to a glass-transition point above 300 °C and endurance beyond 200,000 flex cycles. High-speed or low-loss resins, such as modified epoxies and liquid-crystal polymers, followed at roughly 22%, fueled by 5G radios and 800-gigabit switches that run above 28 GHz.

Glass epoxy FR-4 retained about 18% of revenue in cost-sensitive industrial controls, while BT or ABF packaging resins accounted for 12% linked to chiplet substrates. Ceramic and metal-core composites filled a 6% niche for radar and LED modules. Device makers that specify total board thickness under 0.2 mm increasingly default to polyimide, lifting absolute Rigid-Flex PCB market volumes. New products such as Panasonic MEGTRON 8 and Rogers RO3000 already offer dielectric constants below 3.2, giving designers more headroom for GHz signals without sacrificing bend radius.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By End-User Industry: Aerospace Still Leads, Telecommunications Surges Ahead

Aerospace and defense accounted for 36.58% of revenue in 2025, reflecting stringent IPC-6013 Class 3 requirements and long platform lifecycles. Telecommunications and 5G remain the fastest risers, with a 7.12% CAGR to 2031, as operators deploy millions of small cells and Open RAN radios.

Consumer electronics delivered roughly 20% of sales tied to foldable phones and wearables, while computing and data centers contributed 15% amid 800-gigabit Ethernet upgrades. Automotive and EV held about 12% and is accelerating on battery boards and advanced driver-assist systems. Healthcare captured 8% but faces protracted regulatory cycles, while the industrial and energy segments closed the gap at 9%. Diversification cushions cyclical swings in any single vertical and keeps the overall Rigid-Flex PCB market on a stable upward path.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

Geography Analysis

Asia-Pacific generated 83.73% revenue in 2025 and is projected to grow at a 7.24% CAGR to 2031, anchored by Taiwan, China, and Japan’s deep packaging ecosystems. Taiwanese leaders Unimicron, Zhen Ding Technology, and Flexium shipped more than USD 7 billion in rigid-flex boards, serving smartphones and cloud servers. Chinese firms Shennan Circuits and Dongshan Precision increased capacity by 18% in 2025 to supply domestic EVs and 5G build-outs. Japan’s Nippon Mektron and Ibiden retained preferred-supplier status for aerospace and automotive buyers that demand AS9100 and IATF 16949 traceability.

South Korea’s Samsung Electro-Mechanics earmarked KRW 200 billion (USD 150 million) in 2025 to boost foldable-display boards by 25% by 2027. Vietnam and Thailand emerged as low-cost hubs for mid-complexity boards, drawing Taiwanese investment.

North America accounted for about 10% of revenue, driven by aerospace, defense, and medical programs that require domestic production under the Trusted Foundry framework. TTM Technologies and Molex run ITAR-registered plants, though total regional output remains capacity-constrained. Europe represented roughly 6% revenue. ATandS and Schweizer Electronic benefit from the EU Chips Act yet face high labor and strict environmental rules that price them out of mainstream consumer electronics. Rest of World, mainly Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, captured under 1%, focusing on assembly rather than fabrication.