“We only use rigid PCBs, sorry, but we'll keep you and your company in mind when some of products really need flex circuits, bye." When I received replies like this, I was a little sad but this is the fact in the electronic market. After all, most manufacturer still choose rigid PCBs as the main carrier for connecting. And using flex circuits instead may cost much more than rigid PCBs too. So recently, only new industries are willing to make more use of flex circuits, they know flex circuits certainly would bring innovation in their market because of below items:
Making packages smaller
Flex circuits give designers an almost unlimited freedom to size packaging geometry, while retaining the precision density and repeatability of printed circuit. This suits for medical devices and high-precision position sensing. The devices combine flexible or rigid-flex circuits and antenna coils in one rugged unit. And the base material Polyimide insulation provides high dielectric strength, flexibility, and protection for the antenna.
Saving space over wiring
Flex circuits can fill gaps between round wiring and printed circuit boards. Benefits include space and weight savings in that a single flex circuit can replace several hardboard, cables, and connectors, eliminating up to 75% of the spcae and weight of traditional wiring. Flex circuits can be repeatable and quick to install, which eliminates wire-routing errors, reworkings and rejects.
Helping shrink implantables
Many medical devices should be designed very small then can be used inside the body, surely the electronic circuits in medical devices need to be smaller than medical devices itself. However, traditional rigid board could not satisfy this strict demands of size and weight, flex circuits was brought into being. You can have a look below chart when designing flex circuits for your medical or other applications, which shows the general manufacturing capabiltiy for most flex circuits fabricator:
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