August 2015 • The PCB Design Magazine 65
istic electronic gadgets were piquing his interest
right now.
6
Rigid-Flex PCB Right the First
Time—Without Paper Dolls
The biggest problem with designing rigid-flex hybrid
PCBs is making sure everything will fold in the right
way, while maintaining good flex-circuit stability and
lifespan. The next big problem to solve is the con-
veyance of the design to a fabricator who will clearly
understand the design intent and therefore produce
exactly what the designer/engineer intended.
7
The Art of Bending and
Forming PCBs
Flexible circuits are designed to be bendable, but
bending rigid PCBs is a little unusual. However, many
applications that do not use flex circuit technology
will also require bending and forming the circuit.
some of these applications use high-frequency cir-
cuit materials to create a circuit in a form that enables
improved antenna functionality. Another application
involves wrapping a circuit around a structure, which
sometimes functions as an antenna as well.
8
DownStream Releases New
Versions of Industry-Leading
Products
Downstream Technologies has released new ver-
sions of their industry-leading PCB post-process-
ing solutions, BluePrint-PCB, CAM350, and DFM-
stream. The releases include many new features
and performance improvements designed to help
users post-process PCB designs and create and dis-
tribute all the deliverables required for a complete
PCB assembly release package.
9
Cirexx Installs UCAMCO
Integr8tor Software
Cirexx international has acquired and installed
the uCAMCo integr8tor pre-CAM software.
This software package affords the user faster
and more accurate information for quoting
and front-end engineering. With the integra-
tor tool, Cirexx is not only able to process more
quotes, more quickly, but with a greater degree
of confidence in having identified all of the chal-
lenging attributes of printed circuit fabrication
build.
J
The Past, Present, and
Future of IPC-A-610
since 1983, iPC-A-610, Acceptability of elec-
tronic Assemblies, has been the standard used by
organizations interested in understanding
the acceptability criteria for electronic assem-
blies around the world. To understand the ul-
timate power of iPC-A-610, you need to first
understand what is at the core of this stan-
dard. iPC-A-610 is a collection of visual quality
acceptability requirements for electronic assem-
blies.
PCBDesign007.com for the latest circuit design
news and information —anywhere, anytime.
August 2015 • The PCB Design Magazine 65
