The Benefits of Flexible Printed Circuit Boards

Various industries can benefit from flexible printed circuit boards (PCBs). If you are looking for printed circuit board design services, opt for the companies that can provide experienced and talented PCB designers for hire. By doing this, you would be able to harness the power of PCBs and boost your business.

Apart from size and weight reduction, flex circuit boards provide better signal quality as compared to rigid circuit boards. Flexible PCBs can also operate under a wide variety of application temperatures.

Industry Requirements
Industrial sectors that use flexible printed circuit boards in their applications include automotive, military, storage and computing, telecom, and many more. Finding the right printed circuit board design services for your business will help you save a lot of money.

You have to understand the general application requirements in order to appreciate the advantages of flexible PCBs and they include:

• The printed circuit board should be able to meet the application characteristics including resistance and impedance.
• The PCB should be able preserve its strength apart from being very dynamic in terms of flexibility.
• The weight of the application instrument should be minimum when a particular PCB is installed.
• Installing a PCB should be easy and it should provide adequate performance in very compact assemblies with complex designs.
• The circuit’s design should include least number of electrical connections between the PCB and the application equipment it is attached to.
• It should be cost-effective when it comes to assembling and component placement.

Benefits of Flexible Printed Circuit Boards
Flexible printed circuit boards have their own share of advantages. Few of its benefits are listed below:

a) Easy Routing Path Duplication: Unlike ribbon cables, flexible cables offer the freedom for duplication of the routing path in an assembly. This increases the reliability of the PCB, apart from reducing the number of maintenance cycles.

b) Increased Capabilities: Flex PCBs are designed to meet very complex application needs including:

• Harsh Environments: Flex PCB conductors come with polyimide covering and they are stronger than solder masks. The materials used in making the PCBs have properties like shock resistant, water-proof and corrosion resistant.
• Long Duty Cycles: A flex PCB can withstand various pressures resulting from the larger number of cycles that are regularly performed in an application. There is no signal and power loss in the process.
• High Vibration: Applications going through external vibrations can lead to electrical damage in them. Flexible PCBs have the capability of withstanding such vibrations and ensuring incessant performance of the equipment.

c) Reduced Package Weight: Flex PCBs are designed to reduce the application equipment’s weight up to 76%. Basically, PCBs curb the need for supplementary interconnects within the device. The circuits can be easily wrapped around the internal parts of a device. Flexible PCBs are widely used in electronic and aerospace applications because of their flexibility.

d) Reductions in Time and Costs: The flexible design of the PCB reduces the amount of assembly as well as installation time. As the number of connections is reduced, the expense of manufacturing flexible PCBs is much less compared to rigid circuit boards.

These days, flexible printed circuit boards are used extensively to support compact and delicate components within application equipment. This is also the reason why PCB designers for hire are in huge demand. Even regular household items like TV, clocks, computers, and microwave are supported by flexible PCBs. These circuit boards are also present in your cell phones. Because of their advantages, they will continue to be popular in every industry where circuit boards are necessary.