1. What is an FPC Flexible Board
2. FPC stands for Flexible Printed Circuit, also known as a flexible circuit board, flexible printed circuit board, or simply a flexible board or FPC.
3. Characteristics of FPC Flexible Circuit Boards: FPC flexible circuit boards are noted for their high wiring density, light weight, and thin thickness.
4. Uses of FPC Flexible Circuit Boards:
5. FPC flexible circuit boards are utilized in electronic products such as mobile phones, notebook computers, PDAs, digital cameras, and LCMs. They are highly reliable and excellent flexible printed circuits made from polyimide or polyester film as the base material. Based on the combination of base material and copper foil, flexible circuit boards are categorized into two types: those with adhesive and those without adhesive.
6. Among these, adhesive-free flexible boards are significantly more expensive than adhesive-based boards, but they offer superior flexibility, better bonding strength between the copper foil and substrate, and improved pad flatness. Consequently, adhesive-free boards are typically used in applications with higher demands. Due to the higher cost of adhesive-free boards, most flexible boards available on the market are still adhesive-based.
Since the flexible board is primarily used in applications requiring bending, unreasonable design or processing can lead to defects like micro-cracks and open solder joints. The structure of flexible circuit boards and their specific design and processing requirements are as follows:
**The Structure of FPC Flexible Boards**
1. **Single-Layer Board:** The simplest form of flexible board, typically consisting of a base material, transparent adhesive, and copper foil as one set of raw materials, with protective film and transparent adhesive as another. Copper foil is first etched to form the desired circuits, and the protective film is drilled to expose the pads. After cleaning, the two layers are combined using a rolling method. Exposed pads are then electroplated with gold or tin for protection. This completes the slab. Small circuit boards are usually stamped to shape. Alternatively, solder masks can be directly printed on the copper foil without a protective film, which lowers costs but reduces mechanical strength. Unless cost is a higher priority than strength, applying a protective film is preferable.
2. **Double-Layer Board:** When a single-layer board cannot accommodate complex circuits or requires grounding shielding, a double-layer or multi-layer board is necessary. The key difference from single-layer boards is the addition of vias to connect layers of copper foil. The initial processing involves drilling holes in the substrate and copper foil, then plating copper to form the vias. Subsequent steps are similar to those for single-layer boards.
**Features of FPC Flexible Boards**
1. **Flexibility:** The FPC can be bent, folded, and wound freely, and can move and stretch in three-dimensional space.
2. **Heat Dissipation:** FPCs offer excellent heat dissipation and can help reduce volume.
3. **Lightweight and Miniaturized:** They achieve lightweight, miniaturization, and thinning, integrating component devices and wiring connections.
**Application Areas of FPC Flexible Boards:** MP3 and MP4 players, portable CD players, household VCDs, DVDs, digital cameras, mobile phones and batteries, medical devices, automotive, and aerospace sectors.
**The Origin of the Name FPC Flexible Board**
Due to its unique functions, FPC has become increasingly important in the realm of epoxy resin-based copper-clad laminates. However, its development in our country started later and has yet to catch up. Epoxy flexible printed circuit boards have been in industrial production for over 30 years. Since the 1970s, they have entered mass production, and by the late 1980s, the advent of polyimide film materials allowed for adhesive-free FPCs (commonly “two-layer FPC”). In the 1990s, high-density circuits led to the development of photosensitive cover films, significantly altering FPC design. As new applications emerged, product forms expanded to include TAB and COB substrates. High-density FPCs began large-scale production in the late 1990s, with increasingly refined circuit designs and growing market demand. FPCs are also known as flexible circuit boards, while traditional PCBs are referred to as hard boards.
2. FPC stands for Flexible Printed Circuit, also known as a flexible circuit board, flexible printed circuit board, or simply a flexible board or FPC.
3. Characteristics of FPC Flexible Circuit Boards: FPC flexible circuit boards are noted for their high wiring density, light weight, and thin thickness.
4. Uses of FPC Flexible Circuit Boards:
5. FPC flexible circuit boards are utilized in electronic products such as mobile phones, notebook computers, PDAs, digital cameras, and LCMs. They are highly reliable and excellent flexible printed circuits made from polyimide or polyester film as the base material. Based on the combination of base material and copper foil, flexible circuit boards are categorized into two types: those with adhesive and those without adhesive.
6. Among these, adhesive-free flexible boards are significantly more expensive than adhesive-based boards, but they offer superior flexibility, better bonding strength between the copper foil and substrate, and improved pad flatness. Consequently, adhesive-free boards are typically used in applications with higher demands. Due to the higher cost of adhesive-free boards, most flexible boards available on the market are still adhesive-based.
Since the flexible board is primarily used in applications requiring bending, unreasonable design or processing can lead to defects like micro-cracks and open solder joints. The structure of flexible circuit boards and their specific design and processing requirements are as follows:
**The Structure of FPC Flexible Boards**
1. **Single-Layer Board:** The simplest form of flexible board, typically consisting of a base material, transparent adhesive, and copper foil as one set of raw materials, with protective film and transparent adhesive as another. Copper foil is first etched to form the desired circuits, and the protective film is drilled to expose the pads. After cleaning, the two layers are combined using a rolling method. Exposed pads are then electroplated with gold or tin for protection. This completes the slab. Small circuit boards are usually stamped to shape. Alternatively, solder masks can be directly printed on the copper foil without a protective film, which lowers costs but reduces mechanical strength. Unless cost is a higher priority than strength, applying a protective film is preferable.
2. **Double-Layer Board:** When a single-layer board cannot accommodate complex circuits or requires grounding shielding, a double-layer or multi-layer board is necessary. The key difference from single-layer boards is the addition of vias to connect layers of copper foil. The initial processing involves drilling holes in the substrate and copper foil, then plating copper to form the vias. Subsequent steps are similar to those for single-layer boards.
**Features of FPC Flexible Boards**
1. **Flexibility:** The FPC can be bent, folded, and wound freely, and can move and stretch in three-dimensional space.
2. **Heat Dissipation:** FPCs offer excellent heat dissipation and can help reduce volume.
3. **Lightweight and Miniaturized:** They achieve lightweight, miniaturization, and thinning, integrating component devices and wiring connections.
**Application Areas of FPC Flexible Boards:** MP3 and MP4 players, portable CD players, household VCDs, DVDs, digital cameras, mobile phones and batteries, medical devices, automotive, and aerospace sectors.
**The Origin of the Name FPC Flexible Board**
Due to its unique functions, FPC has become increasingly important in the realm of epoxy resin-based copper-clad laminates. However, its development in our country started later and has yet to catch up. Epoxy flexible printed circuit boards have been in industrial production for over 30 years. Since the 1970s, they have entered mass production, and by the late 1980s, the advent of polyimide film materials allowed for adhesive-free FPCs (commonly “two-layer FPC”). In the 1990s, high-density circuits led to the development of photosensitive cover films, significantly altering FPC design. As new applications emerged, product forms expanded to include TAB and COB substrates. High-density FPCs began large-scale production in the late 1990s, with increasingly refined circuit designs and growing market demand. FPCs are also known as flexible circuit boards, while traditional PCBs are referred to as hard boards.
