There are several options available when selecting printed circuit boards (PCBs) for your requirements. However, due to the high expense of designing and manufacturing the board, rigid PCBs, which are less sophisticated, are frequently preferred by business owners.
Comfort in familiarity is another factor to take into account. Because they have a solid understanding of PCBs and cable assemblies, manufacturers are comfortable using traditional rigid circuit boards in their products. Furthermore, there is a widespread misperception that because flexible materials are used, rigid-flex printed circuit boards will necessarily be more expensive.
Rigid-flex PCB fabrication is believed to be more expensive. Although these boards offer significant cost savings over rigid circuit boards and cable assemblies, manufacturers can miss them. These advantages are the result of many aspects that may lead to cost savings that rigid circuit boards are unable to offer.
The advantages stiff-flex printed circuit boards have over rigid PCBs & cable assemblies in terms of cost-savings will be covered in this article.
Top Advantages of Cheap flex PCB
1. Solves packaging issues
The design flexibility of rigid-flex PCBs is one of its most obvious advantages. Due to the material’s flexibility, it may be shaped and rounded to fit around curves and corners and create seamless 3-dimensional connections without the use of additional components. With the circuit board’s ability to be molded for ideal positioning within the device, this offers up a world of options for electronic component placement. It genuinely inspires creativity!
2. Reducing space & weight
A critical difficulty in PCB design is the trade-off between weight, size, and power consumption, or SWaP. Flexible circuits, which minimize the amount of conventional wiring and soldering connections, provide a solution to this problem. These circuits can result in a weight reduction of up to sixty percent and a reduced overall package size by optimizing the arrangement of components and adopting a flexible construction. Furthermore, flexible materials provide a more discrete substitute for rigid circuit boards.
3. Reduced assembly costs
You can reduce the amount of wiring required in your design by including flexible circuits. This reduces the price of the wire itself, the labor involved in assembly, the cost of labor, as well as the costs related to creating several purchase orders, carrying out receiving & inspection procedures, and kitting. The potential cost savings in this area need closer examination.
4. Facilitates dynamic flexing
One of the most notable qualities of flexible circuits is their durability. They are perfect for applications that call for frequent bending or folding because they are made to withstand a large number of flexes. Computer disc drives, for example, can flex tens of millions to hundreds of millions of times without experiencing any problems. Another excellent illustration is the ability of laptop hinges to resist tens of thousands of flexes throughout their lifetime.
5. Thermal management
Polyimide materials are increasingly being used in flexible circuit designs, particularly for uses requiring great heat endurance. In comparison to thicker, less thermally conductive alternatives, the thin polyimide material offers improved thermal conductivity, making it a better choice for heat dissipation in high-power and high-frequency designs.
6. Improves product aesthetics
The user’s perception and decision-making can be significantly influenced by the way a functional component of a product looks. The usage of a handheld cauterizing tool in a clinic environment served as an example of this. Patient confidence in the earlier design, which included a visible wire connection, was poor. However, despite no change in functionality, patient confidence was significantly enhanced when the wire was swapped out for a stylish polyimide flex circuit. The study emphasizes how aesthetics affect consumer confidence and trust.
7. Bio-compatibility
Due to its high level of bio-compatibility, the use of polyimide materials in the production of printed circuit boards is standard practice. This material is frequently chosen in medical and wearable applications to give the user a safer and more hygienic experience. Furthermore, manufacturers can construct completely biocompatible circuit boards by utilizing cutting-edge technology and gold conductors in place of copper conductors.
8. Increased reliability
A major benefit of employing flexible or stiff-flex circuit boards instead of conventional rigid boards & wire cables is the reduction of system design complexity. This is because flex designs reduce the quantity and variety of required linkages. Furthermore, the exact circuit layout guarantees connections without the possibility of human interference and with zero mistakes.
Cost Benefits of Cheap Flex PCB
· Save on Materials
Compact sizes are made possible by rigid-flex circuit boards, which provide a special benefit in design and production. By removing extra connectors, it will be possible to design the final product around the required form factor rather than the other way around. Rather than determining the size of the product, the circuitry is tuned to fit within the necessary space.
In small, portable applications like handheld devices, the benefit of cost reduction through size optimization is particularly pertinent. A rigid-flex printed circuit board uses less material, which lowers the overall cost of assembly.
· Reduction of Human Errors
Another advantage of adopting rigid-flex printed circuit boards is their simplicity of installation and maintenance. These circuit boards can only be installed in a single, right way thanks to the removal of various connections and cable assemblies, which lowers the chance of human error during assembly. For manufacturers, this streamlines the installation procedure, resulting in time and resource savings.
The simplicity of handling the circuit boards during assembly and repair is an additional benefit. Because separate wire connections are not required with rigid-flex printed circuits, assembly goes more smoothly, and there is less chance of human error. Similar to how there are no wires to deal with, repairs are also made simpler.
· Less Testing Costs
It takes longer to test rigid circuit boards since they frequently need to go through several rounds of testing for the circuit board, joints, connectors, and cable assemblies. However, since rigid-flex circuit boards only need to be tested once, the testing process can be simplified. A rigid-flex circuit board can also undergo extensive testing before being immediately incorporated into the assembly, doing away with the need for further testing cycles.