Flexible printed circuit boards are widely used in a variety of industrial applications. The industries include but are not limited to aerospace, automotive, electronic devices, telecommunications, and maritime. As these industries are looking out for printed circuit boards that are light weight and agile, flexible circuits are replacing rigid circuit boards in many applications. The reasons for this change are the many advantages that flexible printed circuit boards in terms of their design and configurations.
Design, Configurations of Flexible Printed Circuit Boards for Industrial Applications :
Flexible printed circuit boards are able to meet the main criteria of industrial applications – electrical, environmental, and mechanical performance as well as reliability and durability. Flexible circuit boards also allow for the reduction of the overall size and layers of the circuit board while increasing the number of panels. As a long term initiative, flexible circuits have been proven to be extremely cost competitive.
As industrial requirements and applications continue to change and grow, printed circuit board manufacturers also have the opportunity to design custom flexible printed circuit boards to meet specific requirements such as:
Design, Configurations of Flexible Printed Circuit Boards for Industrial Applications :
Flexible printed circuit boards are able to meet the main criteria of industrial applications – electrical, environmental, and mechanical performance as well as reliability and durability. Flexible circuit boards also allow for the reduction of the overall size and layers of the circuit board while increasing the number of panels. As a long term initiative, flexible circuits have been proven to be extremely cost competitive.
As industrial requirements and applications continue to change and grow, printed circuit board manufacturers also have the opportunity to design custom flexible printed circuit boards to meet specific requirements such as:
- Electromagnetic Interference (EMI)
- Different types of circuit geometry (micro strip, dual-line, strip-line)
- Shielding
- Controlled impedance
- Increased thickness with dielectric layers
- Circuit signal control
- Single Sided: These can be used in simple as well as dynamic applications. They generally consist of a copper foil layer, which is laminated to a dielectric material layer. These laminated foil layers are designed to withstand innumerable flex cycles. Single sided flexible printed circuit boards provide the desired performance while being cost-effective in terms of the number of processing steps and manufacturing cycles.
- Double Sided: This type of flexible circuit is able to generate more electrical signals in an application due to the larger number of conductors. Like the single sided circuit boards, these also consist of copper foil and dielectric material layers. Double sided flexible printed circuit boards are particularly adopted by the automotive and computer product manufacturing industries. This is partly due to the introduction of coverlays, which have helped to create high volume and cost-effective production cycles. High chemical resistance, strong thermal properties, and mechanical flexibility are a few other reasons for their popularity.
- Multi-layered: These are meant for applications that comprise populated designs. They usually consist of flexible layers that are unbounded in bend areas, although there are other layer options. PTH technology is used to create interconnections between the layers. Multi-layered flexible printed circuit boards are widely incorporated in commercial applications. This is thanks to the use of advanced military grade flex technologies and specialized adhesiveless flex materials.
