Material

Impedance Control

Flexible Circuits Design Guide

Designing your Flexible Circuit

Before your engineers design the flexible circuits, he can communicate with us knowing that we are going to understand what it is they need, and that we can offer the best way to get them there. The follows basic three steps to design your flexible circuits.

Step 1 - Gather the necessary informations:

Request these guides before starting your design process:

• Learn the general design tips, dimensional tolerances, conductor design data, and artwork layout, etc.
• Get a brief glance at our production capability to get the design assistance and specifications for flex circuits.
• Learn the information about material of FPC
• Knowing tolerance of flex circuits

Step 2 - Determine circuit outlines and conductor routing:

The first step in flex circuit design is to translate schematics and package geometry into flex circuit outlines and artworks. Paper cutouts are one way to achieve this. First, cut out a piece of paper which can be folded to reach all points which the circuit will connect. Then lay the paper flat and trace conductor routing between connection points. Make additional cutouts to represent extra layers. Specify foil thickness and conductor widths to match current requirements.

You can find some simple calculator to calculate the trace (conductor) width for circuit board:

PCB Trace Width Calculator: Based on a curve fit to IPC-2221 (formerly IPC-D-275);
Inter PCB Trace Width Calculator;
External PCB Trace Width;
Inter PCB Trace Max Current;
External PCB trace Max Current;
Trace Resistance;

Step 3 - Send us your request for quote:

Best FPC's policy is to identify and correct potential problems with flexible circuitry at the quoting stage, not after we accept your order. We can use any information you have and create a fully functional board for you. We can accept various file formats with our state-of-the-art CAM software. Using our experience and knowledge of flex printed circuits, We can go through your supplied files and spot any potential design problems before they get to photo production. We can edit your files to make sure they are per DFM (Design for Manufacturability). Best FPC can also use a supplied schematic and design you a custom FPC from that!

To evaluate your flexible circuit and quote a firm price we need:

• A circuit drawing with outline dimensions, cutouts, and dimensional tolerances.
• A chart of hole locations, sizes, and access hole diameters with tolerances.
• A material cross section (circuit stackup) specifying insulation thickness, adhesive, conductor thickness, and stiffener type and thickness.
• A photocopy of artwork or CAD data (if available) showing conductor layout and widths, with all applicable tolerances.
• All testing, inspection, and packaging requirements.