Flex Circuit Push Test Method And Criteria A flex circuit is thin, compliant and difficult to grip, which makes the strength of its solder joints harder to assess than on a rigid board. A pull test on a component can distort the circuit before the joint fails, and a bend…

PCBA BOM and the Materials Behind a Circuit Board A bill of materials for an assembled board lists more than the components that will be visible on it. Behind every finished panel there is a second list of materials consumed by the fabricator, and understanding that list is what turns…

Rigid Flex PCB Development: Where the Two Boards Meet A rigid flex board is not a flexible circuit with a stiffener glued on. It is a stack in which rigid and flexible layers are laminated together in one construction, so that a single part can carry connectors and processors in…

PCB Flex Adhesive Selection: Gluing the Layers Buyers and engineers often focus on the finished product and forget the production line behind it. In practice, most field failures can be traced back to process decisions made during assembly. Understanding PCB flex adhesive selection gives you a practical advantage when you…

PCB Flex Bending Radius: How Far It Can Fold Modern electronics depend on boards that are assembled correctly the first time. Every product – a phone, a charger, a medical instrument or an industrial controller – relies on thousands of solder joints that must conduct current for years. This article…

Qualification of a New Fabricator: Audit, Samples and First Article Adding a fabricator or an assembler to the supply base is a project with a beginning and an end. Doing it properly costs a few weeks and prevents the months of problems that follow an unqualified supplier. What Qualification Establishes…

Express Prototype Service: What Changes When the Lead Time Drops Express service compresses the fabrication into a few days by sharing panels, running small batches and limiting the process steps. It is genuinely useful and it changes what is being built in ways that are worth understanding. How the Time…

Flame Retardant Absorber Material Selection A material that carries a flame rating is not automatically the right material for an electromagnetic problem. The rating answers a safety question, and the absorption answers a functional one. In products such as a base station antenna housing, a battery enclosure or a data…

IPEX3 Connector Selection For Compact RF Boards When a wireless module has to fit into a product smaller than the palm of a hand, the board level antenna interface becomes one of the largest components on the board. A threaded connector is mechanically excellent and far too bulky, so the…

PCB Flex Stiffener Bonding: Making a Soft Board Stiff Modern electronics depend on boards that are assembled correctly the first time. Every product – a phone, a charger, a medical instrument or an industrial controller – relies on thousands of solder joints that must conduct current for years. This article…