Flexible, Affordable Electronics Education
Online courses and webinars for the printed circuit engineering community.

Flexible and Rigid Flex Circuits: Design, Fabrication and Assembly Process Principles

Speaker

Vern Solberg
Solberg Technical Consulting

Duration
 2min 45sec

Flex circuits typically replace the common hard-wire interface between electronic assemblies. Flexible circuits, however, have significant advantages over the hard-wired alternative because they fit only one way, eliminate wire routing errors, and save up to 75% on space and weight. The design guidelines for flexible circuits, although similar to rigid circuits, are somewhat unique. In essence, flex circuits furnish unlimited freedom of packaging geometry, while retaining the precision density and repeatability of printed circuits. Because the flex-circuit conductor patterns can maintain uniform electrical characteristics, they contribute to controlling noise, crosstalk, and impedance. Flex circuits will often be designed to replace complex wire harness assemblies and connectors to further improve product reliability. During the half-day tutorial program, participants will have an opportunity to review and discuss the latest revision of IPC-2222 and IPC-2223, “Sectional Design Standard for Flexible Printed Boards,” that includes base material sets, alternative fabrication methodologies and SMT-on-flex assembly processes. The workshop will also furnish practical flex circuit supplier DfM recommendations for ensuring quality, reliability and manufacturing efficiency. Topics of discussion: 1. Applications and use environment (commercial/consumer, industrial/automotive, medical/aerospace); establishing end-use criteria 2. Designing flexible and rigid-flex circuits (flex circuit outline planning; circuit routing and interconnect methodologies; fold and bend requirements; SMT land pattern reinforcement criteria). 3. Material and SMT components (IPC standards for flex and rigid-flex dielectrics; base material and metallization technologies; selection criteria for SMT components; SMT land pattern development). 4. Assembly processing of flex and rigid-flex circuits (dimensioning and tolerance criteria; palletized layout for inline assembly processing; SMT assembly process variations and methodologies, alternative joining methods for flexible circuits).

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With the advent of ICs with multiple power rails at very high currents, the design of the power delivery system in a modern product is often more difficult than routing the PCB to ensure good signal...
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