Flexible printed circuit boards replace wires
New design options and miniaturisation with attractive designs for all ages thanks to our flexible PCBs with increased functionality at smaller sizes.
Technological innovation of the kind we’re seeing in the medical sector or the automotive industry is mainly driven by the miniaturisation of electronic circuits. These days, a great many modern hearing aids, medical implants and LED car headlights make exacting demands of printed circuit boards, and require them to be installed in tiny spaces. AT&S can easily meet these demands by using flexible base materials.
Flexible printed circuit boards can be bent or twisted during assembly, so they can be integrated into devices with almost any form factor and with space constraints. This is extremely important in devices like hearing aids and pacemakers.
Benefits of flexible and rigid flexible PCBs:
- Adapting a printed circuit board to available space gives developers of devices and components greater design freedom.
- Flexible printed circuit boards allow circuits to be run on more than just one level. As the PCB can be bent or folded, a circuit can be fitted into the available 3D space as necessary.
- Flexible circuits can free up more surface area for memory chips and other components.
- Flexible printed circuit boards are driving further advances in miniaturisation.
- Connections formed with flexible printed circuit boards are extremely resistant, as opposed to those that rely on wiring.
AT&S manufactures flexible printed circuit boards mainly for the medical technology sector, where they are used in devices such as hearing aids and implants. The flexible installation options and high level of miniaturisation allow new functions to be added to such devices without increasing their size. For example, a modern hearing aid can now be connected to a doorbell, the TV or the wearer’s smartphone, thanks to the technology embedded in the compact design of a flexible PCB.