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The Printed Circuit Designer's Guide to...™
Flex and Rigid-Flex Fundamentals

by: Anaya Vardya and David Lackey, American Standard Circuits

Flexible circuits are rapidly becoming a preferred interconnection technology for electronic products. Thin, lightweight and formable, they allow designers extra degrees of freedom in creating their products. However, flexible circuits, by their intrinsic nature, require a good deal more understanding and planning than their rigid PCB counterparts to be assured of first pass success. This concise and highly useful book on flexible circuits from ASC was written to provide circuit designers, both new and seasoned, with valuable and important information that will help to assure their first pass success in getting their products to market.

ISBN: 978-0-9796189-4-9

Anaya Vardya
Anaya has over 30 years of experience in electronics manufacturing with several companies in the US, Canada and the Far East. He has over a decade of executive management experience in public companies manufacturing PWBs. Anaya has managed a variety of facets of PCB manufacturing at companies like IBM, Continental Circuits, Merix, Coretec and now American Standard Circuits.
One of Anaya’s peers described him as "...one of the most driven engineering managers I have ever worked with. He has a keen eye for details and recognizes the big picture." He has extensive experience in virtually every aspect of PCB manufacturing operations including supply chain management and quality control. It is this background that allows Anaya to not only serve as ASC’s CEO, but as an expert ready to assist you with whatever questions you may have.

David Lackey
Dave has been involved with manufacturing PCBs since 1980 and has worked in various shops, most of which had military certifications and utilized higher technology.
Dave has extensive experience building metal-core boards and PCBs requiring thermal management solutions, as well as flex and rigid-flex boards.
Having worked in most departments throughout the years, Dave has developed a strong engineering background and is knowledgeable in most industry technologies. His background enables him to work not only with buyers but design engineers and quality and manufacturing personnel as well. Most questions can be answered on the spot, without having to deal with multiple visits, e-mails, or calls.

ASC is a total solutions provider for the PCB industry, capable of delivering advanced technology to virtually every industry sector in quantities ranging from quick prototypes to large volume production.

Founded in 1988, American Standard Circuits is a leading manufacturer of advanced circuit board solutions worldwide.

Our ongoing commitment to leading-edge higher level interconnect technology, cost-effective manufacturing and unparalleled customer service has put us at the forefront of advanced technology circuit board fabrication.

We manufacture quality rigid, metal-backed and flex printed circuit boards on various types of substrates for a variety of applications, including:

-Military/Aerospace
-Industrial
-Commercial
-Medical
-Telecommunications
-Consumer Electronics
-RF/Microwave
-Transportation

This book has been technically reviewed by the following experts:

Tom Woznicki, "The Flexdude"

Lee Ritchey

Chapter Summaries

  • Chapter 1

    Chapter 1

    Chapter 1 discusses material call-outs for flexible and rigid-flex circuits, including missing call-outs, copper type and thickness, and cover layer or solder mask over flex.

  • Chapter 2

    Chapter 2

    Chapter 2 explains how to design and layout flex and rigid-flex designs that will be right the first time, focusing on fabrication specifications, manufacturing tolerances, controlled impedance, and more.

  • Chapter 3

    Chapter 3

    Chapter 3 breaks down the information that must be provided in the final data package you deliver to your flex fabricator, such as materials, class, plating requirements, artwork, and layer count.

Print-on-demand paperbacks are available for this title. Click below to order from our distributor.

What Our Readers Are Saying



The Printed Circuit Designer's Guide to...Flex and Rigid-Flex Fundamentals, the new book on flex/rigid-flex printed circuit boards by American Standard Circuits is a must-have desk reference for any PCB designer, OEM/ODM, contract manufacturer and PCB fabricator.

-Steve Williams
Full Review

Contact the Author

For technical support click here

Book Recommendation -- By Steve Williams

The Printed Circuit Designer's Guide to...Flex and Rigid-Flex Fundamentals, the new book on flex/rigid-flex printed circuit boards by American Standard Circuits is a must have desk reference for any PCB designer, OEM/ODM, contract manufacturer and PCB fabricator. American Standard builds some of the most advanced technology in our industry, and they provide a look behind the curtain at this challenging topic. The book is a wealth of information for anyone in the supply chain using flex/rigid-flex technology.

For designers, there is guidance on key callouts, design considerations and material sets or optimum manufacturability. For PCB fabricators, there are plenty of do’s and don’ts gleaned from decades of first-hand experience. For OEMs/ODMs, the author reviews factors that are cost drivers in this technology arena. Of particular interest to contract manufacturers is the information on what needs to be included in the data package they receive from a customer that will be transferred to the PCB fabricator.

There is something here for everyone. I highly recommend downloading this book right away!

Steve Williams
President
The Right Approach Consulting

Tom Woznicki, Tom Woznicki, CID+, is the founder of Flex Circuit Design Company in San Jose, California. He founded the company in 1992 after serving as a technical sales engineer for Rogers Corp.

He has designed over 1,000 flex and rigid flex circuits for fiberoptics, disk drives, medical equipment, telecommunications, military/aerospace and many other applications. Many of these circuits require leading-edge manufacturing methods, such as additive circuitry, laser processing and microvias, as well as assembly technologies such as flip-chip and chip-on-flex.

Tom served on the team that worked on the flex circuitry for the Mars Curiosity Rover. Since 2014, Tom has been part of the team working with MIT on the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), providing PCB design services, PCB design reviews, and project management services for the focal plane circuit boards for the satellite.

Lee Ritchey Lee Ritchey is considered to be one of the industry's premier authorities on high-speed PCB and system design. He is the founder and president of Speeding Edge, an engineering consulting and training company. Ritchey conducts on-site private training courses for high technology companies and also teaches courses through Speeding Edge and its partner companies. In addition, he provides consulting services to top manufacturers of many different types of technology products including Internet, server, video display and camera tracking/scanning products.

Prior to founding Speeding Edge, Ritchey held a number of hardware engineering management positions, including program manager for 3Com Corporation and engineering manager for Maxtor. Earlier in his career, he designed RF and microwave components for the Apollo space program among others. Ritchey holds a BSEE degree from California State University, Sacramento.