September 3, 2014

Cost savings achieved in multi-layer rigid flex for defibrillators

Background:

PFC received a gerber and drawing package from a medical company that manufactures defibrillators. The requirement was for a 5 layer rigid flex, impedance controlled, assembled with smt components and a through hole connector. Cost was important.

Design:

The reason for choosing a rigid flex design:

• Requirements for components on top and bottom of the circuit
• Stiffened area for smt component mounting
• Multilayer flex to support EMI and impedance requirements

Proposed Solution:

The need for designing a rigid flex is to allow component mounting on both sides of the circuit. In this particular instance, the only component on one side of the circuit was a connector with through-hole solder tails.

PFC recommended a three layer flex with plated through-hole stiffener:

• This allowed smt components to be mounted on one side of the stiffened circuit
• The plated through-hole stiffener allowed PFC to solder the connector from the backside of the stiffener
• The multilayer flex circuit met the impedance and EMI requirements the customer required

Benefits:

• Lowered the number of copper layers from 5 to 3
• Lowered the overall cost by 30%

Contact PFC if you have questions about your flex design.