There are significant differences between FPC soft boards and PCB boards in terms of materials, physical properties, manufacturing processes, application fields, cost and reliability.
Materials and physical properties of FPC soft board and PCB board:
FPC soft board: mainly uses flexible substrate materials, such as polyimide film or polyester film. These materials give FPC good flexibility and bendability, allowing it to adapt to various complex shapes and small spaces.
PCB board: Usually a rigid substrate is used, such as fiberglass reinforced epoxy resin (FR-4). This material provides good stability and load-bearing capacity and is suitable for holding and supporting electronic components.
Manufacturing process of FPC soft board and PCB board:
FPC soft board: The manufacturing process is relatively complex, including special production processes such as lamination, lamination, and metallization to ensure the quality and reliability of circuits on flexible substrates.
PCB Board: The manufacturing process is relatively mature, including chemical etching, gold plating, drilling, copper plating and other processes. Due to the high degree of automation, the production efficiency is high.
Application fields of FPC soft board and PCB board:
FPC soft board: Suitable for devices that require flexibility, thinness, folding or bending, such as foldable mobile phones, tablets, medical equipment, automotive electronics, etc. Its flexibility and thinness provide unique advantages in these areas.
PCB board: widely used in fixed and rigid electronic equipment, such as computers, mobile phones (non-foldable parts), home appliances, etc. It provides a stable electrical connection and support structure.
Cost and reliability of FPC soft board and PCB board:
Cost: The materials and processing technology of FPC soft boards are relatively complex, so the cost is usually higher than that of PCB boards. The cost of PCB boards is relatively low, and the production process is more mature, making it easier to achieve mass production.
Reliability: Although FPC soft boards perform well in terms of flexibility, their flexible materials are easily affected by bending, extrusion and other forces, so under some extreme usage conditions, their reliability may be slightly inferior to PCB boards. However, with the advancement of technology, the reliability of FPC is also constantly improving.
