Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1523825
56 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JULY 2024 manufacturing helpmates to improve, facili- tate, or make the manufacturing process safer and more productive. Perhaps flexible circuits are most popular simply because they are flexible and allow the designer to design and manufacture in two- dimensional space and then use the product in all three dimensions, either statically to seam- lessly form fit into a box or product contour, or dynamically as might be required in the case of hinged or gated aperture that allows for rework, repair, or modification of the circuits interconnected by the flex circuit. In these cases, the designer must have some knowl- edge and apprecia- tion of not only the needs for the electr ical inter- connections but also the mechanical require- ments of the circuit to make sure the assembly will not suffer an untimely failure due to work hardening and metal- lurgical failure from overuse or inattention to such things as copper ductility and "I-beam- ing." I-beaming refers to the design for manu- facturing steel beams used in the construc- tion of buildings, which in cross-section look very much like the capital letter "I" or "H," and provide superior strength-to-weight form. While good for general mechanical construc- tion such as a building, in a flexible circuit, that strength is typically undesirable, especially in bend areas, and the designer needs to under- stand and appreciate that in the design process. is can be problematic in some cases where the designer is concerned with managing the characteristic impedance of a design; having a signal in specified proximity to a ground layer can create conflict if the reference pair must be bent. It can be accommodated to some degree if recognized and reacted to. Another area of increasing interest in the past decade or so has been wearable mechatronic hardware designed to improve the lives of those debilitated by disease or injury. Referred to generally as exoskeletons, these products are wearable devices designed to support or augment the natural movements of the human body. While they came to the attention of the general public through science fiction movies such as "Alien," they first found application in fields like the construction industry and mili- tary. Such products are also finding use or are being proposed for many health-related uses. One example is physical rehabilitation, where mechatronic exoskeletons assist individuals in their return to physical health. Another would be to provide assistance to the growing elderly population with the mundane activi- ties of daily living, such as walking, eat- ing, climbing stairs etc. Such mecha- tronic devices could be augmented with stabilizing gyroscopes to reduce fall risk, monitor the individual's biometrics and generally enhance quality of life for older adults. ere is arguably a third hat that could be tossed into the mechatronic equation and that is the matter of thermal management in design because of the steady increase in power demand and consumption by electronic prod- ucts. It has been somewhat a "tit for tat" of spi- raling challenges over the years where, when a designer has figured out a way to make a prod- uct use less energy and run cooler, the product developer sees it as a license to run the product faster and hotter. us, it is important that the designer pays attention to and accommodates the "getting the heat out" of their mechatronic design. ermal management experts observe that with heat, it must "all go back to air" in some fashion, so determining the best way to facilitate that in the design will be increasingly important in the years to come if we continue Another area of increasing interest in the past decade or so has been wearable mechatronic hardware...