The flexible circuit conductors must be arranged
As you may be aware, flexible circuits are slightly different from rigid printed circuit boards. Flexible circuits can easily twist, stretch or bend, unlike rigid ones. For this reason, when designing a flex circuit board, it is essential to be cautious towards the conductor’s arrangement.
If you are a designer dealing with the manufacture of a flexible circuit, you must ensure that you are very keen when arranging the conductors. Incorrect or inadequate conductor setting is a hazardous process that can cause a severe failure of the entire circuit, especially during board flexing.
If possible, the conductors used here should pass through curved and curved areas. By doing this, there is a high chance of minimizing stress on the conductors during flexing while ensuring that you maximize your flexible circuit’s life.
Correctly set the bending area at the initial stage
Designers need to comprehend the bendability of their flexible printed circuit boards when designing flexible printed circuit boards. Here, it is vital to understand two crucial aspects of bending. First, how many times the board will be turning, and secondly, what the council can bend.
The board’s number of times can flex, and use will determine whether the board is dynamic or static. When manufacturing a flexible printed circuit board, manufacturers should ensure that they rightly set the bending area during the initial stages of making them.
Both the minimum and the maximum bending have to be set in the right manner way back in the manufacturing process to ensure that a board functions as desired. For instance, bend radius, or the smallest amount of bendiness, must be appropriately identified way early in the design.
It will ensure that the design phase prepares to create a flexible circuit that can bend without damaging the materials inside.
Notches and slots in curved areas
When designing how to make notches around your PCB’s curved or bend areas, your drawing tools will matter a lot as a designer. You will have to have a deep understanding of your Arc tool to create three or four bridging sections where you will likely place the slots. You will then have to put small holes around the bridges’ narrowest point to make room for the slots.
Once you have the board outline ready, you can now easily arrange these bridged sections to achieve a polygonal edge. These edges will generally fit your desired curved PCBs and make room for the notches and slots you want to create. It will now be an easy task of cutting out the slots from the edges.
Another trick would have a circular board outline on your board outline layer. The circle’s two halves can be manipulated with a radius to meet your notches’ size individually.
Flexible routing
When routing comes to electronic design, there is a step known as wire routing or called the path. The path is an essential step in the design of printed circuit boards. It builds a preceding step known as placement, which goes a long way into determining every active element or component’s location on a printed circuit board.
It does not concern features that will later cause discontinuities, especially in a bending area. When a flexible circuit gets bent or stretched, compressing forces can cause discontinuity, leading to fractures in insulation or the conductors. Again, it is better to avoid beams and also minimize the ability of copper circuits to thin.
Risks of flexible through holes
Through-hole technology involves mounting solutions for electronic components, in which leads mounted into holes drilled on the PCB and then soldered to pads on both sides of the board. This exercise can place manually or using an automated machine.
There are several risks associated with through-hole. When designing a printed circuit board, it is essential to ensure that plated through-holes are kept out of areas that regularly flex or bend—the through-hole subject shear forces due to compression and tension between the outer and inner bends.
Additionally, the surface finish on one team needs to be the same as the one used on the other side. As a flexible printed circuit board designer, it is advisable not to design through-holes in bend regions and avoid direct force.
If you are going to learn more PCB professional knowledge or want to order PCB products, please click our homepage or instant quote to custom our products.