Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1050827
10 PCB007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2018 Take a minute and think back to your high school days. Now that you have thought of some of your best memories and hopefully chuckled only a little, did any of those mem- ories involve conceptualizing a product intro- duction that utilized a flexible circuit or rigid- flex? I know mine didn't. I didn't give flexible circuitry much thought at all until I interviewed at a flexible circuit manufacturing company af- ter graduating from college. Thankfully, I was hired for that job and my early years in the printed circuit board industry were focused al- most exclusively on flex and rigid-flex. One of my favorite phrases to this day came from that time: "Flex is really only limited by your imagi- nat ion." I am from the generation that saw flex- ible circuit application ideas take off outside of military and aerospace work. I remember the insulin pump being developed, and medical equipment—such as hearing aids—becoming smaller, lighter, and more portable. Flex tech - nology and the number of flexible circuit ap- plications is advancing at a staggering pace. With the demand for increasingly complex electronics, we see semi-additive processing, modified semi-additive processing, and flexible hybrid electronics technology (among others), advancing rapidly to meet those needs. Imagine being back in high school and get- ting introduced to these advanced electronics Flex Talk Feature Column by Tara Dunn, OMNI PCB FlexFactor: Imagination and Innovation Figure 1: A student team from Abraham Lincoln High School in San Jose, California, pitches their product concept, driving technology, and business model to a panel of representatives. (Source: NextFlex)