PCB News - Features, advantages and disadvantages of FPC flexible circuit boards

Features, advantages and disadvantages of FPC flexible circuit boards

Flexible printed circuit board(FlexiblePrintedCircuit referred to as FPC) is a highly reliable and excellent flexible printed circuit board made of polyimide or polyester film as the base material. It has the characteristics of high wiring density, light weight, thin thickness and good bendability.

1. Short: short assembly hours

All lines are configured, eliminating the need to connect redundant cables;

2. Small: the volume is smaller than the PCB circuit board

It can effectively reduce the volume of the product and increase the convenience of carrying;

3. Light: lighter than PCB circuit board (hard board)

Can reduce the weight of the final product;

4. Thin: thickness is thinner than PCB circuit board

It can improve the softness and strengthen the three-dimensional assembly in a limited space.

FPC flexible circuit boards are printed circuits made of flexible insulating substrates, and have many advantages that rigid printed circuit boards do not have:

(1) It can be bent, wound, and folded freely, and can be arranged arbitrarily according to the requirements of the space layout, and can be moved and stretched arbitrarily in three-dimensional space, so as to achieve the integration of electronic component assembly and wire connection;

(2) The use of FPC flexible circuit boards can greatly reduce the volume and weight of electronic products, and is suitable for the development of electronic products in the direction of high density, miniaturization and high reliability. Therefore, FPC has been widely used in aerospace, military, mobile communications, laptop computers, computer peripherals, PDAs, digital cameras and other fields or products;

(3) FPC also has the advantages of good heat dissipation and solderability, easy assembly and connection, and low overall cost. The design of FPC soft and hard combination also makes up for the slight deficiency of flexible substrate in component carrying capacity to a certain extent. .

(1) The one-time initial cost is high: Since FPC flexible circuit boards are designed and manufactured for special applications, the initial circuit design, wiring and photographic plates require higher costs. Unless there is a special need to apply flexible PCB circuit boards, it is usually best not to use it in a small amount of application;

(2) It is difficult to change and repair the flexible PCB: once the FPC flexible circuit board is made, it must be changed from the base map or the light drawing program, so it is not easy to change. The surface is covered with a protective film, which must be removed before repair and restored after repair, which is a relatively difficult task;

(3) Size is restricted: FPC flexible circuit boards are usually manufactured by batch method when they are not yet common. Therefore, due to the size of production equipment, they cannot be made very long and very wide;

(4) Improper operation is easy to damage: the installation and connection personnel may cause damage to the soft circuit due to improper operation, and the soldering and rework need to be operated by trained personnel.