A rigid-flex design does not have a consistent set of layers across the entire circuit design, the rigid section of the board will have a different set of layers from the flexible section. And if the rigid-flex design has a number of rigid sections joined by a number of flex sections, then there may be a different set of layers used in each of these sections. A PCB editor with a single layer stack cannot support this design requirement. To support this, In rigid-flex packaging, a flexible circuit substrate provides a backbone of wiring with rigid multiplayer circuit sections built-up as modules where needed., as shown below.
When to use rigid flex circuit board ?
It`s getting harder to fit everything in the box; it`s also getting more costly. One solution promising to help designers meet the size constraint head on is rigid-flex PCB technology, but most design teams try to avoid using rigid-flex PCBs when product cost is an issue. But is it really as expensive as we think?
