Design for Manufacturing: Optimizing Flexible Circuit Boards (FPCs)
Are you looking to enhance your knowledge of flexible circuit board design and manufacturing? This comprehensive presentation by Joe DiPalermo from PICA Manufacturing Solutions dives deep into the principles and best practices for creating reliable, high-performing flex circuits used across industries like automotive, medical devices, consumer electronics, and wearable technology.
In this video, you’ll learn about:
Material Selection: Choosing the right materials for flexibility, durability, and thermal resistance, including polyimide, polyester, and adhesive-less copper-clad laminates.
Mechanical Stress Management: Techniques to minimize strain and improve the longevity of your designs through optimized conductor placement, bend radius guidelines, and strain relief.
Signal Integrity and Environmental Resistance: Ensuring signal reliability while protecting circuits from heat, moisture, and chemical exposure.
Advanced Manufacturing Techniques: How to incorporate stiffeners, adhesives, and ground planes to enhance the durability and performance of your flexible PCB.
Applications of Flexible PCBs: Discover how these innovative circuits are transforming industries with compact, high-performance solutions for dynamic and static applications.
Whether you’re designing single-sided flex circuits, double-sided flex circuits, or rigid-flex boards, this presentation covers the essential design strategies and manufacturing considerations needed to create cost-effective, reliable circuits. From optimizing impedance control to improving resistance to vibration and tearing, these actionable insights will elevate your expertise in flexible printed circuit design.
Why Flexible Circuits Matter
Flexible PCBs are critical in enabling advanced electronic designs by offering unparalleled versatility, compactness, and reliability. With applications in cutting-edge technology like wearable devices, automotive electronics, and medical diagnostics, the demand for high-quality flex circuits is growing rapidly.
Learn more about PICA Manufacturing Solutions and their expertise in flexible and rigid PCB design:
picamfg.com/products/flexible-circuit-boards/
picamfg.com/products/rigid-flex-circuit-boards/
Chapters
0:00 Types of Flexible PCBs
Single and double sided flex, adhesiveless and adhesive-based flex.
1:48 Types of Flexible PCBs - Multilayer Flex
1:52 Types of Flexible PCBs - Rigid Flex
3:50 Key Design Considerations - Managing Conductor Strain in Bend Areas
5:23 Key Design Considerations - Avoiding "I" Beam Configurations
6:10 Key Design Considerations - Optimizing Bend Radius
*Note: Slide drawing source Joseph Fjelstad - "Flexible Circuit Technology" 3rd Edition, May 2007.
8:58 Additional Design Strategies - Strain Relief, Tear Resistance, Vibration & Shock Resistance
12:08 Additional Design Strategies - Tolerance Settings, Ground Planes, Bending Flex to hold shape
15:25 Materials Selection - Importance of Material Type and Construction, Specific Requirements, Key Attributes to Consider, and Collaborative Review.
21:04 Desirable Characteristics of Flexible Circuit Materials - Core Characteristics & Additional Factors
24:20 Base Film - Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) and Polyimide (PI) Other Options: Ployethylene Naphthalate (PEN) and Flexible Copper Clad Laminate (FFCL).
27:03 Types of Copper Cladding (FCCL) Adhesive-Based FCCL & Adhesiveless FCCL
29:41 Choices of Copper - Rolled Annealed (RA) Copper, Electro Deposited (ED) Copper, and High Ductility Electro Deposited (HDED) Copper
31:24 Stiffeners - Polyimide abd Polyester Films, Metal Stiffeners (Aluminum or Steel), Fiberglass Laminates (FR4, G10, FR5) and Plastic Stiffeners
34:15 Adhesives - Bonding Adhesives (Non-Conductive), Reinforced Adhesives, & Specialized Adhesives
35:54 Key Takeaways - Design Optimization, Material Selection, Manufacturing Best Practices, and Applications and Versatility