Do you know the difference between ENIG and plating gold?

Posted on July 31, 2021August 3, 2021 by Love FPC

Before we point to the topic, I’d like to share one story with you first.

Recently, one of our customers, whose projects need ENIG(1u”) on whole surface, and we didn’t know these projects was strict with the gold surface on some special area.

There are two pre-treatment for ENIG, one is gridding plating, another is sand blasting. At first, what we used is gridding plate, so when customer watched the gold surface can saw some cracks.

To solve this issue, we suggested to try sand blasting ENIG pre-treatment. Compared with gridding plating, it only need slightly brush the plate. But it’s still cannot meet customer’s need.

For normal design, change the surface treatment from ENIG(1u”) to gold plating can completely solve this issue. But in this design, the PADs on boards are separate, and there are in different gridding with outside. So gold plating is infeasible for this design.

Only when the inner PADs lie in same gridding with big copper plate, the gold plating is feasible.

So, let going to today’s the topic. What’s the difference between ENIG and plating gold?

The difference in process.
ENIG is called immersion gold, achieved by chemical deposit. Through an oxidation-reduction chemical reaction, it formed a layer of coating. It’s one of chemical nickel-gold depositing methods, can reach thicker gold layer.

It need pre-treatment gridding plating and sand blasting before immersion gold, need brush the board to enhance the adhesion between the board and the gold surface.

2）Gold plating use the principle of electrolysis, also known as electroplating. Needn’t pre-treatment before plating gold.

The difference in color.

ENIG is golden.

Plating gold will be slightly whiter (nickel color).

The difference in performance.

The crystal structure between ENIG and gold plating is different. Compared with plating gold, ENIG is easier to weld and will not cause bad welding.

The stress of ENIG is more easily controlled, for the products with bond, more conducive to the processing of the bond.

Last but not least, as we mentioned at the beginning, if your project need plating gold, pls make sure these area need gold plating can connect with outside gridding.

Hope above information is helpful for you to know more about ENIG and plating gold.

If any further question, pls let us know.

What should be paid attention to in the bending process of FPC?

Posted on July 30, 2021August 3, 2021 by Love FPC

Flexibility is the most obvious advantage for flex PCB, but we should maintain a degree during use, not just bend casually, so what should we pay attention to when bending?

Although the FPC can be bent, if it is bent at 180°, this may cause damage to the copper traces, and it lead to open or short circuits.

Most of the ink-type protective layer is not resistant to bend, such as text/silk screen, marking, solder mask, etc. It is strictly prohibited to have more than 90° bending action in the assembly process.

The corners of the FPC outline, which are prone to tearing during the assembly process, reminding users to pay attention to it.

The exposed part of the FPC is subjected to surface plating treatment, such as gold/gold plating, etc., the focus is on preventing oxidation. This area is not suitable for bending.

Although there is a stiffener design in the golden finger plug-in area, it is still not suitable for bending in this area. Special attention should be paid to the assembly process.

Do not bend directly on the via area of FPC.

If you have any design question about bending area, please feel free to contact us at sales@bestfpc.com. We will share more details about increasing the bending times soon.

What is the differences between FFC and FPC?

Posted on July 16, 2021August 3, 2021 by Love FPC

Have you ever been heard about the FFC? Do you would like to learn about the FFC usually will be used in which kind of field? What are the differences between FPC and FPC?

FFC means flat flexible cable, it consists of multiple flat conductors insulated with a flexible plastic film that is laid out with conductors that are straight. It’s shape fixed as a rectangle. The pitches are available such as 0.5mm, 1.0mm and 1.25mm. Pitch means the distance between the center of conductor to the center of the conductor next to it.

What kind of FFCs usually used for PCB? It’s typically have a stiffener attached to the opposite side of the contact portion side to be inserted into a connector. They are simple one-to one connect jumpers. The FFCs are widely used in LCDS, mother boards, touch screens, cameras and other various devices.

FPC means flexible printed circuit board. FPC consist of copper, coverlay and PI. Can be customize as different patterns and multilayers flex pcb.

The mainly differences between the FFC and FPC?

1. Base material different: FFC base material is PET material, the range of use temperature from 85 to 165 °F. FPC base material is PI material. Attached the difference between PI and PET difference blog for your reference, hope you will be interested in . https://www.bestfpc.com/blog/2020/09/26/what-are-the-differences-between-the-poyester-pet-and-polymidepi-material%EF%BC%9F/

2. FFC width depends on the connector need to assembled pitch. FPC can be customized by all kinds of shapes. That is why the FFC you have seen is the rectangle shape, and there are all kinds of outline FPC.

3. FFC is can be designed as 1 layer, but FPC can be designed as 1~10 layers.

4, FFC surface color usually is white, FPC is yellow, black or white.

If you have any query about FFC? Please feel free to contact Best Technology at sales@bestfpc.com