Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1210212
84 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2020 FLEX007 Feature by Hemant Shah CADENCE DESIGN SYSTEMS When I was a very young boy, my dad would delight and tease me by flexing his muscles. He did this with a very special flourish. Rather than simply flexing, he would put his thumb in his mouth, blow, and flex, which gave the appearance that huffing and puffing on his thumb made his bicep pop out. This was a great show for a little boy. In PCB design, we work with a differ- ent type of flex. Advances in consumer and industrial electronic devices have allowed manufacturers to produce smaller devices that have more functionality. Those devices use rigid-flex designs that pro- vide the form factors needed for porta- bility and—many times—in- clude multiple interconnect- ed boards. With all the in- terconnections between the boards, PCB de- signers pay equal at- tention to signal paths and to the electrical connec- tivity between boards. On the me- chanical design side of things, each board must fit within an enclosure that meets the product specifications. As a Multi-board Etching: Managing Rigid-Flex Designs and Conductivity