4Rigid-Flex PCB
As the manufacturing processes of flexible circuit boards (FPC) and rigid printed circuit boards (PCB) mature, rigid-flex PCBs have gained wide adoption across various electronic products. Simply put, a rigid-flex PCB integrates flexible and rigid circuit boards onto one single board through lamination and other procedures in accordance with design specifications, retaining the respective performance characteristics of both board types.
Advantages & Disadvantages
Rigid-flex PCBs combine the properties of FPC and PCB. They are ideal for products requiring compact internal space and structural bending. These boards feature bendable flexible sections for interconnection and rigid areas for component mounting. They greatly reduce connectors and wiring space inside devices, shrink the overall product size, and help improve the reliability of finished equipment.
Rigid-flex PCBs involve far more complicated production workflows than standard single FPC or rigid PCB. High precision is required for alignment, lamination and layer registration, resulting in relatively low production yield. Higher material and labor costs push up the unit price, alongside longer lead times for delivery.
Main Applications
Rigid-flex PCBs are commonly used in space-constrained designs such as internal mobile phone boards, keyboard circuit boards, side key PCBs, computer motherboards, LCD display driver boards, display module boards, disk drive PCBs, notebook internal PCBs and hard disk drive boards.
