ALCANTA TECHNOLOGY(SHENZHEN)CO.,LTD
ALCANTAPCB is one of the rigid flex pcb manufacturer. In rigid flex pcb design, material selection, physical stacking, signal integrity requirements and design rule constraints become more critical. Because there are many factors to consider, it is important to select a PCB manufacturer to analyze your application carefully to fully meet your needs.
When choosing a rigid flexible PCB manufacturer, please consider the following important factors:
Experience and expertise. More and more high-end equipment and software are needed to analyze and predict the movement of materials to successfully manufacture rigid flexible PCB. Therefore, it is very important to choose a manufacturer that can fully demonstrate each resource. In addition, while many PCB manufacturers offer rigid, flexible, assembly and rigid flex boards, it is important to work with a company with extensive expertise in rigid and flexible to ensure that they have the necessary skills and knowledge to meet your project requirements and standards.
It has the function of UL 94 V-0 flame retardant PCB. Another way to evaluate potential rigid flexible PCB partners is to find out if they offer UL 94 V-0 grade boards. This is particularly important for medical and industrial applications, or for anyone who requires UL certification as a condition of insurance coverage. In addition, it is well known that it is difficult to obtain UL grade with rigid flexible structure. If your manufacturer can provide pre approved, UL certified rigid flexible PCB, it can save a lot of time and effort.
Impedance requirements. Compared with modeling and manufacturing on flexible circuit board or hard board, the modeling requirement of impedance control circuit on rigid flexible board is higher. The impedance circuit across the flexible area and the rigid part of the part needs to be modeled for both structures. The dielectric value provided by the material manufacturer may be inaccurate, and the online free modeling software usually returns the wrong value, and can only model the simple trace of planar structure. If impedance is important or critical to your design, you need to find a vendor who will work with you to model the requirements on your board, and the vendor should have the software to help you model the requirements. It is also important to select the person who tests your board at the end of the build to ensure that they match the required impedance values.
Cost factors to consider
Although experience and dedication to quality are the most critical factors in choosing a rigid and flexible provider, cost should also be considered.
In general, it is well known that rigid flexible PCB is more expensive than hard circuit board or flexible circuit. Raw materials (e.g. non flowing prepreg, binderless flexible laminates) and specialized building components that meet specific operational requirements (e.g., thicker flexible dielectrics for impedance layers) are key factors leading to higher costs. However, you can use some constructs and methods to limit these costs.
ALCANTAPCB provides the lowest cost, as well as the most robust and stable rigid flexible design criteria. In addition, you can check out our rigid flex cost estimator before you start to get a cost estimate for your rigid flex design. It allows you to quickly estimate the possible cost of design in small volume production. Although not an exact quote, the tool is designed to simplify the design of determining whether flexible Flex PCB is suitable for your project.