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Design007-Mar2020

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66 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2020 mobility, or connectivity. There are all kinds of reasons. Engineers across all markets are being driven to flexible solutions. One of the things that's interesting is that it's growing so rapid- ly that there are many new entrants into that market. Unfortunately, there's a lack of true design talent in the industry. Beaulieu: Correct. That's a fact. Burkett: One of the things that is unique about us is the application engineering sup- port that we provide to our customers. We're led by Mark Finstad. Mark co-chairs the IPC Flex Circuit 2223 Design Committee. He's well known and the lead educator, along with an- other gentleman, at IPC events. Mark is also a noted columnist and one of the foremost ex- perts on the globe, and yet it's not just Mark. Our entire team of application engineers of- fers from 25 to 35 years of experience in de- signing flex and rigid-flex. It's so important in helping customers get to cost-effective designs that are going to perform within the challeng- ing applications that these circuits are typi- cally used in. Beaulieu: To talk to the audience a little bit, I've been doing this for a long time, and I can remember when there were only a handful of companies in the United States that did flex, particularly rigid-flex, when you get into bookbinders and stuff. And there's been a rejuvenation in the last few years in the United States to the point where there are better flex products. I talked to designers 10 years ago who didn't even want to design it in, even in applications where flex should be, like in automobiles. They didn't even want to put it in because it was too hard to buy, or it was too hard to find. You have changed that, but what I find intriguing is that you do it all. Burkett: When you look at the custom- ers or OEMs today, one of the chal- lenges has to do with the overall sup- ply chain. You're trying to manage this mas- sive supply chain. Often, they were set up at one time—maybe they were transactional rela- tionships; today, we're seeing most customers want more. They want partnerships and sup- pliers that can take on more. And when you look at the advent of the growth of CMs and EMS companies, they do a great job in sup- porting customers. We have responded. We started with flex, rigid-flex, and shipping. Bare boards led us to assembly, so we're shipping assemblies. Now, we've moved on all the way to complete box builds. Probably the unique thing about us is that when you look at a CM, they're almost like the general contractor. They're getting components and parts from everybody to put this product together. But with us, we're starting with the heart of the product. Typically, that's going to be the circuit board or the flex circuit. We're using de- sign experts to get a cost-effective solution so we can get high yields. We can perform the EMS, and we're specialized in that area. Often, EMS companies are used to placing compo- nents on rigid boards. To do that on flex takes different techniques, special fixturing, and a lot of special knowhow to be proficient at it. We're experts at assembling flex, and that's very important.

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