PCB Solutions Case Study – Tight Tolerance Rigid Flex Printed Circuit Project

PCB Solutions fabricates a full spectrum of custom fabricated electronics and connectivity products. Products we manufacture range from simple and complex rigid circuit boards to simple and complex flex and rigid flex printed circuit boards. We also produce a host of connectivity products like wire harnesses, connectors, raw cables and cable assemblies. In March of 2018, an American university engineering department reached out to PCB Solutions with a very complex 8-layer rigid flex PCB that a few other organizations had failed to produce on prior attempts. In this blog post we highlight a very unique rigid flex PCB. This is an especially challenging circuit board do to very tight tolerances, BGAs and flex standards. See below: . The University of (ABC) is interested in receiving a binding quote from PCB manufacturers for the (DEF) project.  Please, provide for our evaluation a quote for fabrication of a total of 3800 (unpopulated) Rev. 1a PCBs Please refer to the following technical notes for the fabrication and assembly of additional (DEF) Rev. 1a PCBs.

1. For fabrication of additional FEC Rev. 1a revision PCBs, ‘Halogen-free’ materials are REQUIRED as clearly indicated in the attached design files, as originally planned.
2. To help during the assembly of the previous Rev. 1a PCBs, prior fabricator added a temporary break-away section of PCB (“stiffener”) to temporarily lock the rigid PCBs together. This same stiffener needs to be added again for fabrication of additional Rev. 1a PCBs.
3. The following custom parts will be provided for assembly: customer detailed

. Layer Count: 8 PCB Type: Rigid Flex Flex Material: Polyimide Panasonic 2mil, adhesiveless Rigid Material: FR-4 FR-4 Thickness: 1.6mm Stiffener: no stiffener Adhesive: no adhesive Surface Finish: ENIG Finished Thickness: .062” Finished Copper Weight: 1 oz Impedance Control: Yes Legend: White RoHS Compliant: Yes IPC Class: IPC-600-CLASS 2 Array Type: Single Units Typical Order Quantity: 30 pcs trial, repeat orders per contract Typical Lead Time: 21-28 working days . PCB Solutions quoted in March and processed an order in April for 30 trial units. Our team spent 4 working days on engineering questions from our CAM team the university engineers combing through every detail the updated design. Our team delivered 30 flawless circuits within 28 working days and just a few days shipping. The shipment was supported by all the standard documents: Certificate of Conformance, multiple Outgoing Reports, Electrical Test Data, etc. With delivery and testing now in play, PCB Solutions is looking forward to working this engineering team on repeat orders. If you have a new flex design or an old flex design you are having troubles with, please reach out to our team. We are confident we have the ability to produce a high-quality product consistently. We have the ability to engineer, design, layout, produce, and manage materials for any type of connectivity product. . Please get in touch with our sales team. PCB Solutions quotes@pcb-solutions.com 866-517-9792 If you would like to submit files, you can click here to upload a quote or here to submit specs without Gerber files. .