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102 I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2026 Building a robot the size of a cockroach requires rethinking every assumption of conven- tional mechanical and electrical engineering. At the centimeter scale, wire harnesses become unman- ageable tangles, rigid chassis structures become disproportionately heavy, and conventional con- nectors dwarf the components they're meant to join. Rigid-flex PCBs offer a radical solution: Make the circuit board the skeleton. Structural Electronics This concept, sometimes called structural electron- ics, exploits a key property of rigid-flex PCBs: the ability to combine stiff regions that hold components with compliant flex regions that serve as joints. In practice, rigid-flex PCBs are replacing the bones and nerves of insect-scale machines. In a conventional robot, motors, sensors, and processors are mounted on separate rigid boards and connected by wires. In a structural electronics design, all of these ele- ments share a single multilayer rigid-flex PCB that, when folded along its flex regions, becomes a three- dimensional electromechanical assembly. The Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory has been a pioneer in this space. Its RoboBee platform, a sub-gram flying robot inspired by insect flight, uses a laminate manufacturing process called smart composite microstructures. Though not a PCB in BY A N AYA VA R DYA , A M E R I CA N STA N DA R D C I RC U I TS FLEX007 A RT I C L E Micro-robot Exoskeletons With Rigid-flex PCBs