Introduction For The Difference Between PCB And FPC

The PCB, which is called a printed circuit board, is often referred to as a hard plate. It is the support body of electronic components, and it is a very important electronic component. PCB generally uses FR4 as the substrate, also known as hard plate, which can not be bent, flexural. PCB is generally used in some places that do not need to bend, please have relatively hard strength, such as computer motherboard, mobile phone motherboard, etc.

FPC, in fact, is a kind of PCB, but there is a big difference from the traditional printed circuit board. It is called flex board, all called a flexural circuit board. FPC generally uses PI as the substrate, is a flexible material, can be arbitrarily bent, flexure. FPC typically operates in a way that requires repeated flexing and the linking of a few widgets, but that is not the case now. Smartphones are now looking to be bendable, which requires the use of FPC as a key technology.

In fact, FPC is not only a circuit board that can be flexed but also an important way to connect the three-dimensional circuit structure design, this structure with other electronic product designs, can be built into a variety of different applications, therefore, from this point of view, FPC and PCB are very different. For a PCB, unless the circuit is made into a three-dimensional form by pouring film glue, the circuit board is generally flat. Therefore, to make full use of three-dimensional space, FPC is a good solution. In terms of rigid PCB, the current common space extension scheme is to use slots and interface cards, but FPC as long as the transfer design can make a similar structure, and in the directional design is more flexible. Using a single connection FPC, two hard plates can be connected into a set of parallel circuit systems or can be turned into any Angle to adapt to different product shape designs. An FPC can of course use terminal connections for wire connections, but it can also use hard and soft boards to bypass these connections. A single FPC can use a layout to configure many hard boards and connect them. This method reduces connector and terminal interference and improves signal quality and product reliability.