How To Find A Good PCB Supplier

Flexible PCB( WDF-FPC-D-18 ) - wonderfulpcb.com

A famous star need a good director, if Jack Chen or Tom Hanks, or Nicolas Cage met with a mediocre director, I guess the box office would take a tumble.
Just like to find a good director for a movie, if you are purchasing for PCB circuit boards, you need to find a good PCB supplier firstly.

Here are some proven tips to guide you through the selection process successfully.

Market Orientation: 

Carrying out a background research on the different suppliers will help you know the exact price that you should pay for the services to be rendered. Understanding market orientation can also help you find quality services. Note that each PCB supplier specializes in one field that he or she is good at.

Manufacturing criteria: 

What is cared most often is the manufacturing criteria of PCB supplier, his/her production capacity, lead-time, quality, and service. If a PCB supplier only have a low production capacity, your purchasing requirements may not be satisfied, for example, you need to produce a multilayer board while technology and devices of the supplier are backward and couldn’t take this order. Punctual lead-time is one of points to be considered, it is related with production capacity but also related with management system of the PCB supplier. A superior management system will greatly improve production efficiency. At last, a good service also is essential which includes prompt reply, good communication, and settlements for the quality issues.  

Desist from choosing PCB suppliers who offer low prices. Instead, you should find suppliers whose prices are directly proportional to the quality of the products. Sometimes, low quality products are very cheap as compared to high quality products. One of the major benefits of purchasing a high quality product is that they are more cost effective since they are more durable hence they require less repair or maintenance services.

Finally, find companies that have a clean track record so as to get value for your money. Their repairing costs should be affordable and in line with your budget. Once your products have passed the R & D, find a reliable partner who can help you establish and expand your market and credibility.

A PCB supplier in Shenzhen of China which you must be interested in:
http://www.wonderfulpcb.com

The Advantages and Disadvantage of FPC

A: Disadvantages:

1. Original cost is high

Because the FPC is designed and made for special application, the cost of circuit design, wiring and photographic plate is high. Except special need, we’d better not use them.

2. The modification and correction is difficult

Once FPCs are made, if we want to modify, we have to begin from the base drawing or gerber program. Therefore it’s difficult to change. On its surface there is a coverlay. Before the modification, we have to remove it, after the modification, we have to recover it, which is difficult.

3. Dimension limitation

Since FPC is not popular, we usually use intermittent method to make them. Then we can’t make too long or wide FPC with the limit of manufacture instruments dimensions.

4. Easier to be damaged if improper operation

It is easier to cause the damage of FPC circuits because of improper operation. Special trained workers are needed in tin plating and rework

B: Advantages

FPC is the printed circuit board which is made of flexible insulating base material. It has many advantages many rigid PCBs don’t have.

1. It can be bent, rolled, folded freely, can be arranged randomly according to the space, can be moved and stretched in 3-D space, then integrate the components assembly and wiring connection.

2. It can satisfy the need of electronic products to develop in the direction of high density, smaller size, higher reliability, since FPC can greatly reduce the volume and weight of electronic products. Therefore FPC is widely applied in fields or products of aerospace, military, mobile communication, laptop, computer exterior design, PDA, and digital camera.

3. FPC also has the advantages of good thermal diffusivity and solderability, easy to assembly, low combined cost. The design of rigid-flex boards also make up the disadvantage of components carrying ability of flexible base material.

If you need expert FPC service, feel free to contact wonderful02@wonderfulpcb.com. 

Flex circuits

Flex circuits are often used as connectors in various applications where flexibility, space savings, or production constraints limit the serviceability of rigid circuit boards or hand wiring. A common application of flex circuits is in computer keyboards; most keyboards use flex circuits for the switch matrix.
In LCD fabrication, glass is used as a substrate. If thin flexible plastic or metal foil is used as the substrate instead, the entire system can be flexible, as the film deposited on top of the substrate is usually very thin, on the order of a few micrometres.
Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are normally used instead of a back-light for flexible displays, making a flexible organic light-emitting diode display.
Most flexible circuits are passive wiring structures that are used to interconnect electronic components such as integrated circuits, resistor, capacitors and the like, however some are used only for making interconnections between other electronic assemblies either directly or by means of connectors.
In the automotive field, flexible circuits are used in instrument panels, under-hood controls, circuits to be concealed within the headliner of the cabin, and in ABS systems. In computer peripherals flexible circuits are used on the moving print head of printers, and to connect signals to the moving arm carrying the read/write heads of disk drives. Consumer electronics devices make use of flexible circuits in cameras, personal entertainment devices, calculators, or exercise monitors.
Flexible circuits are found in industrial and medical devices where many interconnections are required in a compact package. Cellular telephones are another widespread example of flexible circuits.
Flexible solar cells have been developed for powering satellites. These cells are lightweight, can be rolled up for launch, and are easily deployable, making them a good match for the application. They can also be sewn into backpacks or outerwear.

If you need expert flexible circuit board service, please contact wonderful02@wonderfulpcb.com.