Flexible Circuits

High density, multi-layer flexible printed circuits are used in a variety of consumer applications ranging from ink jet printers to medical electronics to automotive.
 
Laser are used to perform the following manufacturing operations:

• Laser ablate an organic material (typically polyimide) from a gold contact pad. The organic material must be completely removed without damaging the contact pad.
• Laser drill holes through organic cover layers
• Laser etching of windows through an organic layer
  

Hole diameter through cover layer:
Maximum diameter: .050"
Minimum diameter: .002"
Positioning tolerances: +/- .001" (Higher tolerance achievable with machine vision)
Cover layer thickness (typical): .005"

To accomplish the above manufacturing operations, Resonetics uses a combination of three (3) laser technologies:

High speed CO2 Driller with optical scanner:

 

High speed, DPSS 355nm Laser Ablation System

High Power Excimer Laser with long line homogenizer module

Resonetics deploys various metrology systems to assure quality.

In-situ machine vision systems will perform global alignment, part-to-part alignment and inspect the ablation area of through holes on-the-fly. The critical dimensions are downloaded to a spreadsheet that will automatically calculate the CpK's, standard deviation. Each part will have it's own inspection chart to provide full traceability

Alternatively, the flexible circuit will be measured by automated metrology equipment that has been pre-programmed to measure the key metrics.