Rigid-flex Printed Circuit Boards are a mix of both rigid and flexible Printed Circuit Boards which gathers together the significant properties of both types and hence greatly increasing the design capabilities of the integrated circuits. In rigid-flex Printed Circuit Boards, the rigid circuits can be connected together through flex connections as when rigid areas are excellent as rigid mounting chassis, the flexible connectors are better for connection in order to greatly reduce vibration resistance zones and provide flex to fix ability for the Printed Circuit Boards.
What is a Flexible Circuit Board?
A flexible circuit in its essence is an array of conductors which provide an alternate for the traditional use of the wire harness. The flexible circuits are mostly used to replace wiring and connectors. A circuit board can be made to bend a little bit to conform to the requirements of the space but can never match the flexibility of the flexibility circuits and can never provide the same level of alternate for the wire harness as the flexible circuits can provide.
Types of Flexible Circuit Boards
The flexibly printed circuit boards like rigid circuit boards can be of single to multi flex layers depending of the type of applications they are used in. The multi layer flexibly Printed circuit boards provide even more flexibility as compared with the multi layer rigid Printed Circuit Boards. One of the biggest advantage of flexible PCBs over the rigid PCBs is their ability t assume the three dimensional shape. This ability provides room for higher density applications to be covered by the flexible printed circuit boards more efficiently as compared with the rigid printed circuit boards.
Rigid Flex Printed Circuit Boards
Rigid flex circuits bring together all the awesome features of both rigid printed circuit boards and flexible printed circuit boards integrated into one combined circuit called the Rigid flex printed circuit board. The two kinds of circuits in the rigid flex PCB are interconnected with the help of via mainly plated through via pr PTH. The rigid flex circuits for some applications can be of greater advantage as compared with the ordinary rigid circuits or the ordinary pure flexible circuits as the Rigid flex circuits can provide capability for higher density for the components to be mounted as well as they can provide higher quality control. Designs of the PCB can be manipulated so that they are rigid where extra support or material stiffness is required while where more flexibility is required or areas requiring extra space, the flexible PCB part can be adjusted there.
Flexibility of Rigid Flex Printed Circuit Boards provide greater design improvements of the devices as they can take various geometrical shapes without effecting the operation of the circuits. They can take up three dimensional shapes, can be fit into small sizes and work perfectly unlike rigid circuits which cannot bend beyond their specified limits hence greatly reducing the design innovation for the devices.
The advantages of the Rigid Flex Printed Circuit Boards can be highlighted as below,
• They provide room and opportunity for design improvements by possessing the three dimensional flexibility as a rigid flex PCB can take various geometrical shapes without affecting the reliability, durability and efficiency of the system.
• The flexible circuits are resistant to resistance and shock and hence the cost of repair and replacement is greatly reduced as compared with the rigid circuits. On flexible circuits, the bonded stiffeners can be placed in order to achieve the greater mounting capability of rigid Printed Circuit Boards in the flexible Printed Circuit Boards.
• The flexibly circuits being made of polyimide films are also light in weight as compared with the rigid circuits and hence result in light weight devices. The flexible circuits have anti-vibration benefits and can be used in harsh environments.
• The impedance control in flexible circuits is superior as compared with the rigid circuits.
• The failure during the assembly in case of flexible Printed Circuit Boards is also less as compared with the rigid Printed Circuit Boards.
Synergise PCB Inc. provides solutions for your flexible circuit needs with long term performance for your devices. We adhere to international norms and standards of manufacturing and our products can compete in quality and reliability anywhere in the international arena.
