Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1500943
80 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2023 They're All Good Rigid-flex, rigidized flex and hybrid flex are all fantastic solutions. Your manufacturer should be able to steer you based on the flex- ibility of your design. If there are so many components required and you need the real estate to place them, forcing you to put them on two sides of the cir- cuit, then a rigid-flex is the right solution for you. It probably has the highest cost and is the most difficult for your supplier to manufacture. If you can move all the components to one side only, then a rigidized flex is the best solu- tion. It has the lowest cost, and in most cases, is easiest to manufacture. If you have a design that requires compo- nents on both sides of a board, SMT on one side, and through-hole on the other, the hybrid solution might be the answer for you. e bottom line is that the combination of flex circuits and PCBs give designers and man- ufacturers more maneuverability and, uh, flex- ibility to package products. DESIGN007 Mike Morando is director of sales and marketing for PFC Flexible Circuits, a subsidiary of OSI Electronics. A Step Further: Hybrid Flex Let's say you need to have components on both sides. Can you put SMT on one side and through-hole on the other? A simpler version of a rigid-flex can be built as follows: Assume you have a two- to four-layer flex with SMT components on the top or bottom flex side, and through-hole components mounted on the opposite side. In this instance, instead of building a rigid- flex, one can design the flex and then laminate a simple two-layer rigid board on the bottom. e plated through-holes line up with the plated through-holes in the flex and when the through-hole component is soldered by hand, wave, or a point-to-point soldering system, the solder joins the flex and rigid board together and the through-hole component is securely and electrically anchored in the assembly. I am calling this a hybrid flex; it's part PCB and part flex. Is there another industry name for this category that I don't know? I'd be happy to hear from you. e benefits of the hybrid solution are: • All the benefits of a rigid-flex • Lower cost Figure 4: Rigidized 4-layer with FR-4 stiffener. Figure 5: Plated through-holes on the back side of a flex.