Printed Flex Circuits

Customer normally being requested to communicate with Printed Flex Circuits all the needs and requirement, if the information presented is clear and easily understandable, the chance of getting the flex circuit customer want on the 1st pass is greatly enhanced. Since over 75% of documentation package we received require some sort of clarification, this will lead to countless man-hours lost pursuing very important information to meet manufacturing target.
At a bare minimum, flex circuit manufacturing need to given the following information in order to complete this manufacturing task properly:
1 Class of product;
2 Material to be used for construction which includes:
- Base laminated and cover-layer type;
- Metal foil type and thickness;
3 Holes count for each holes size called out;
4 Data to define each hole locations (hard or digital drawing);
5 Conductor layer count;
6 Flex Circuit artwork defining signals runs for each layer;
7 Cross-sectional view of each flexible circuit construction;
8 Cover-layer or cover-coat opening location;
9 Flex Circuit outline with dimensions and datums;
10 Marking requirement, material and location;
11 Bend and flex location and direction of bend;
12 Stiffener location and bonding requirement;
13 Special process and/or surface finish requirement;
14 Tolerance for manufacturing include:
- Holes tolerance;
- Physical dimension tolerance;
- Critical dimension (if any);
15 Test point location;
16 Special electrical testing requirement;