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Rigid-Flex PCB Disadvantages
If you compare the Flexible and Rigid board with the FPC+PCB+Connector, the biggest disadvantage is that the price of Flexible and Rigid board is more expensive. The biggest disadvantage is that the price of "FPC" is more expensive, which may be nearly double the price of the original pure "FPC+PCB", but if the price of connectors is deducted, the price may tend to be the same, and the detailed cost may have to be calculated again before there is a clearer outline. Another disadvantage is that PCBA manufacturing SMT mounting and furnace may need to use the tray (carrier) to support the part of the flexible board, which invariably adds to the SMT assembly costs.
Flexible and Rigid Boards Advantages
Apart from the price, there are many advantages of using Flexible and Rigid boards, as listed below:
1. Can effectively save space on the board and eliminate the use of connectors or HotBar process.
Because the FPC and PCB have been combined, so the original need to use connectors or HotBar process space can be eliminated, which has a number of high-density demand for the board, less space for a connector is like picking up a piece of treasure. This also eliminates the need for connector parts or HotBar process costs. In addition, the space between the two boards can be tightened by eliminating the connector.
2. Flexible and Rigid board signal transmission distance is shortened and speed is increased, which can effectively improve the reliability.
Traditional signal transmission through the connector is circuit board → connector → Rigid-Flex PCB → connector → circuit board", while the signal transmission of Flexible and Rigid board is reduced to "circuit board → Flexible and Rigid board → circuit board", the distance of the signal transmission becomes shorter, and the problem of attenuation is also reduced between different media. Generally, the wiring on the circuit board is made of copper, while the contact terminals of the connectors are gold-plated, and the solder joints are tin-plated and need to be soldered on the circuit board with solder paste, so there is inevitably some attenuation of the signal transmission between different dielectrics. This will help to improve the reliability of products that require higher signal accuracy.
3. Rigid-Flex PCB simplify product assembly and save assembly time.
The use of Rigid-Flex PCB can reduce the working hours of SMT, because it reduces the number of connectors. It also reduces the assembly time of the whole machine because it eliminates the need to insert the boards into the connectors or the HotBar process. It also reduces the cost of parts management and inventory because the BOM is reduced, so there is less to manage.