Layout and Design Services

Flex Interconnect Technologies offers several design solutions based on your unique needs.

Application Engineering: Our engineering team consults on your project, it’s applications, and requirements. Through this complimentary service, we advise on the best options to ensure your design is a success.

DFM: Our proprietary DFM software filters out any design rule violations that would hinder manufacturing. We program our software to detect design errors against our specific manufacturing processes.

File Conversion Services: We convert PDF, DXF, and other non gerber formats into a universal gerber format file package.

Design Analysis: We are look for constraints and stresses in your design that may affect the integrity of your flex. Our engineering team reviews your design for issues CAD software cannot detect.

Layout Services: Our on-staff engineers have decades of experience designing flex and rigid flex printed circuits. We know the unique challenges inherent in manufacturing flex circuits. Our team can reduce up revisions and free up your R&D money for other product lines!   

Our engineers design in Allegro and Altium. When you take advantage of our premium layout services, we provide you with custom gerbers, fabrication prints, BOMs, drill files, and CPLs in a universal format.

100% Guarantee: Your success is our success. When we partner with you, your satisfaction is our number one concern. Once you review our deliverables, we will address any requested changes. We do not bill you until the files are 100% approved.



100% Satisfaction Guarantee

Your success is our success. When we partner together, your satisfaction is our number one concern. As you review your deliverables, we will address any requested changes. We do not bill until the files are 100% approved.

BEND RADIUS RULES

Type Of FlexMinimum Bend Radius
Single Sided Flex3x to 6x the thickness
Double Sided Flex6x to 10x the thickness
Multilayer Flex10x to 15x the thickness
Dynamic Flex25x to 40x the thickness

FLEX DESIGN CHECKLIST

DESIGNING RELIABLE FLEX CIRCUITS
BEND AREA CONSIDERATION:
  • Route traces perpendicular to bend line
  • Traces must be evenly spaced across the bend area, wide & uniform, and staggered on adjacent layers
  • Sharp angles should be avoided
  • Traces should always come out perpendicular to the rigid edge, when transitioning to the flexible region
  • Cross-hatch ground and plane layers, especially in the bend area
  • Number of layers at the bend area should be kept at a minimum
  • Flex layers can be separated (loose-leaf) for multilayer construction to increase flexibility
  • Mechanical slots, slits or ICT custom hinge design can be used to increase flexibility
  • No vias or PTH should be placed in the flex region, unless used for shielding or away from bend region
  • Use RA copper grain direction for dynamic flexing or tight bend radius
  • Conductors should be close to neutral axis, especially for dynamic application
  • Minimize the dielectric thickness to reduce stress on the conductors
  • Follow minimum bend radius rules
PADS, HOLES & MASK CONSIDERATION:
  • Tear-drop all pads and tie-down all unsupported pads
  • Pad size should be large enough for selective plating the holes
  • All vias should be in the stiffened/rigid area
  • Stiffener holes should be at least 20 mils larger than finished hole size
  • Gang open the coverlay wherever possible
  • Use LPI/Coverlay combo for fine pitch components such as BGA, CSP, etc
  • Allow for possible squeeze out of the adhesive onto the pads
STRAIN RELIEF CONSIDERATION:
  • Radius all inside corners. Additionally copper trace can be used as tear stop
  • Use holes at the end of slits or slots as tear stop
  • Use epoxy bead in the rigid to flex transition area
  • Use appropriate stiffener thickness and material to support solder joints
  • Keep vias, holes and SMT features at least 25 mils away from the board edge
  • Vias on rigid-flex should be minimum 50 mils away from the rigid-to-flex transition edge
  • Never have edge of coverlay opening and edge of stiffener right on top of each other
MATERIAL SELECTION CONSIDERATION:
  • Take into account stress due to environment such as temperature, vacuum, vibration, bends, etc