Flexible Printed Circuit Manufacturing Process

FPC flex circuit design

The wide application and development of flex circuits are due to its remarkable advantages. First, the good quality, lightweight, tiny volume, and agile structure of flex circuits satisfy the requirement of modern electronic products.

Second, FPC flex circuit design can stretch out to three-dimensional space, improving the freedom of mechanical structure design and circuit design. These advantages not only reduce the workload of the assembly errors and the whole machine but also improves the stability and reliability of the electronic equipment system as a whole.

Flex circuit design analyzers: Pretreatment

During the production process, when low yield caused by too many defects is witnessed, for instance, open/short circuit or lessen the scrap rate and the feeding frequency caused by problems related to coarse processes like cutting, rolling, and drilling.

And then, evaluate how to select the material for meeting the requirements of the customers and manufacture the flex circuit design analyzers that may accomplish the best effect. This demonstrates that pretreatment is of utmost importance.

Flexible printed circuits: manufacturing process

The process of flex circuit design and manufacturing is exhaustive. Following is the manufacturing process of flexible printed circuits:

  1. Flex circuit design
  2. Cutting
  3. Drilling
  4. PTH
  5. Electro less Plating
  6. Pretreating
  7. Dry Film Lamination
  8. Position
  9. Exposure
  10. Develop
  11. Pattern Plating
  12. Remove Dry Film
  13. Pretreating
  14. Dry Film Lamination
  15. Position and Exposure
  16. Develop
  17. Etching
  18. Remove Dry Film
  19. Surface Finish
  20. Coverlay Lamination
  21. Lamination
  22. Curing
  23. Immersion Gold
  24. Silkscreen
  25. V-cutting/scoring
  26. Electrical Test
  27. Punching
  28. FQC
  29. Packaging
  30. Shipment

Why manufacturers prefer flex circuits?

Generally, manufacturers prefer flexible circuitry due to the following reasons:

  1. These wiring solutions fit where rigid boards cannot
  2. Lightweight, thin products that are durable
  3. Miniature versions of current technologies
  4. 3D packing geometry
  5. Less device interconnects
  6. Vibration and shock resistance

These benefits hint as to why flexible circuitry options are an ideal solution, especially for mobile consumer electronics.

The amateurs of enterprising circuit boards who take apart their laptop computers or smartphones will discover a wealth of flexible circuitry instead of any modern device on the market.

Rigid-flex circuits

The rigid-flex circuits have also gained prominence of late. In many of these circuit boards, the circuitry comprises multiple flexible circuit inner layers selectively attached using an epoxy pre-preg bonding film, mimicking a flexible multilayer circuit. However, a multilayer rigid-flex circuit uses a board internally, externally, or both as required to achieve the design.