FAQ's
Production-quality flex and rigid flex prototypes and small-to-medium-production at quick-turn speeds. Leading-edge technologies to fabricate your designs to validate concepts to production.
IPC 6013 states that a polyimide circuit can be bent up to a radius of 10 times the overall thickness of the material stack-up. However, please talk to PFC when designing your flex. Because of the multitude of available material choices and acquired design techniques, there maybe an opportunity to meet your bend requirements.
Flexible circuits consist of conductive strips of metal, usually copper, encapsulated with an insulating dielectric material that allows the circuit to bend, resists moisture and contamination, is resilient to high temperatures and is an excellent insulator.
A flex circuit can operate at 125° C for extended periods with DuPont coverlays and adhesives. Using Espanex coverlays and adhesiveless materials a flex circuit can withstand extended periods of 170° C.
PFC is currently participating in ITAR projects and is qualified to do so even though PFC is a Canadian company. The ITAR regulations generally prohibit the export of ITAR-controlled goods and technical data outside of the US without an export license. Section 126.5 (c) of the ITAR (Canadian Exemption) provides an exemption for the export of technical data to Canada as necessary for the performance of certain “defense services”.
The PFC engineering and manufacturing team has 160 years of cumultive experience specific to the flex circuit industry.
PFC spends an average of 10 hours evaluating a customer’s flex CAD layout, materials, bend radius, plating, etc. with the goal of making your circuits right the first time.
PFC is shipping millions of parts per year with a 99% quality percentage.
80% of PFC’s circuits are shipped assembled.
PFC’s employee turnover rate is less than 1% in over 17 years.
PFC continues to invest in technology with the goal of staying ahead of the technology curve required in the industry.
PFC produces circuits with 50 micron line and space every day and is working on prototypes at 37.5 micron line and space.
PFC can produce up to 16 rigid flex layers.
Non-recurring engineering (NRE) refers to the one-time cost to research, develop, design and test a new product. Manufacturing flex circuits, rigid flex and flex assemblies involves the development of different types of items that will require a one-time charge. In general there are 3 categories of tooling for manufacturing a flex circuit: photo tool, outline die and electrical test. On your initial quotation from PFC, you will see NRE charges.
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Production-quality flex and rigid flex prototypes and small-to-medium-production at quick-turn speeds. Leading-edge technologies to fabricate your designs to validate concepts to production.
