PCB Tech - What are the advantages of FPC flexible circuit boards?

FPC flexible circuit board/FPC flexible circuit board (Flexible Printed Circuit Board), as the name implies, has the function of inflection and can be made into a three-dimensional space. Therefore, in theory, only one FPC flexible circuit board/FPC flexible board can complete the overall wiring work in a machine.

Since the use of FPC flexible circuit board/FPC flexible board can omit many connectors or wires, and can greatly reduce the wiring volume, it can achieve the goal of miniaturization and light weight of electronic products. In addition, the FPC flexible circuit board/FPC flexible circuit board can be equipped with many parts and can be stored in the gap in the machine. Therefore, a well-designed circuit does not require any welding and adjustment work after being installed in the chassis, which invisibly reduces cost.

Because FPC flexible circuit board/FPC flexible board has the ability to withstand the tortuous back and forth of a small radius, this feature is difficult to replace with ordinary wires. Therefore, the recent use of FPC flexible circuit boards/FPC flexible boards on print heads has absolutely overwhelming ordinary wires, and almost all print heads on electronic calculators and personal computers have adopted FPC flexible circuit boards/FPC flexible boards. . In addition, the circuit formation technology that has been successfully developed recently can standardize a circuit with a width of 0.1 mm and a pitch of 0.2 mm. Especially for circuits that need to flow many signals but do not need to flow large currents, the ground wire and the circuit can be configured at the same time. power cable.

Lightness and thinness are a major feature of FPC flexible circuit boards/FPC flexible boards. Most RPCs have a thickness of 1.6 mm, and the recently developed glass fiber RPC also has a thickness of 0.40.6 mm. In general, when a current of about 1A flows through a wire, the thickness of its insulating sheath also has an outer diameter of 1mm. However, if the general performance FPC flexible circuit board/FPC flexible board is used, if there is a substrate thickness of 25um, the overall thickness only needs to be 100140um, which fully shows the advantages of FPC flexible circuit board/FPC flexible board in thickness. In terms of weight, the weight of the plastic matrix and the glass fiber matrix can't be compared at all.

From the above points, we can see that if you want to reduce the weight and volume of the product, you must rely on FPC.

In addition, FPC flexible circuit board/FPC flexible board has the advantage of improving product reliability. Even if the number of solder joints is reduced, the number of connectors will be reduced, which greatly reduces the chance of failure. In addition, compared with traditional substrates that are wire-bonded one by one, the assembly man-hours can be greatly reduced, and many operational errors can be eliminated. Therefore, the online repair work can be greatly reduced, and the production cost can be greatly reduced.