Dan's Biz Bookshelf: 'Revenge of the Tipping Point'
Marcy's Musings: Engineering Economics
Punching Out: Should You Sell Your Company to a Private Equity Firm?
Insulectro Flex Materials Showcase Offers Tips for Technologists
October 13, 2023 | Andy Shaughnessy and Tobey Marsicovetere, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 1 minute
Insulectro continues its drive to educate PCB designers about the ins and outs of advanced flex materials. On Sept. 19, the company hosted an all-day seminar on flexible and printed electronic materials at its San Jose, Calif., facility.
The event kicked off with a presentation by Dave Rosenfeld, a technical fellow at Celanese, which acquired DuPont’s mobility and materials business last year. Dave focused on designing flexible heaters with positive temperature coefficient (PTC) thick film inks. With PTC inks, resistance increases as temperatures rise, so someone who’s wearing a jacket with a flexible heater will not get burned when the device is set on high.
DuPont’s Greg Roettger discussed the hundreds of iterations of Kapton®, the first polyimide invented by DuPont in the 1960s. He noted that some type of Kapton was used on every NASA mission to the Moon and Mars, as well as the James Webb Space Telescope.
Insulectro’s Chris Hunrath detailed some of the recent advances in rigid-flex technologies, such as no-flow pre-preg and lead-free rigid-flex materials. He also offered tips for working with rigid-flex bookbinders, which increase the length of traces away from the bend radius, thus releasing pressure on other traces, helping to avoid buckling.
Breakfast was provided, and lunch came courtesy of a great Mexican food truck. After the presentations, we enjoyed a little beer, wine, and conversation. Insulectro has been holding these seminars for years, and they draw a good audience every time.
Article photo credit: Tobey Marsicovetere, I-Connect007
Share on:
Suggested Items
NTT, Olympus Joint Demonstration Shows IOWN APN's Low-latency Capability
11/21/2024 | JCN NewswireNTT Corporation and Olympus Corporation announced that, following the start of their joint experiment in March of the world’s first cloud endoscope system which processes endoscopic videos on the cloud, they jointly established a cloud endoscopy system utilizing the IOWN APN technology.
Flexible Thinking: Rules of Thumb: A Word to the Wise
11/20/2024 | Joe Fjelstad -- Column: Flexible ThinkingIn the early days of electronics manufacturing—especially with PCBs—there were no rules. Engineers, scientists, and technicians largely felt their way around in the dark, making things up as they went along. There was a great deal of innovation, guessing, and testing to make sure that early guidelines and estimates were correct by testing them. Still, they frequently made mistakes.
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
11/15/2024 | Marcy LaRont, I-Connect007We have quite a mix in this week’s must-reads. The November issue of Design007 Magazine was published, and you don’t want to miss Andy Shaughnessy’s column. This week, we also have a discussion of long-flex PCBs with CEE PCB’s Jerome Larez, and we revisit my forward-looking interview with Dr. Evelyne Parmentier of Dyconex. Jim Will gives us an update on the many things that have transpired in his first five months as executive director at USPAE. Finally, Happy Holden’s next installment of Happy’s Tech Talk looks into the weaknesses of CAD drawings by using a famous Escher print as an example. Happy is definitely one of a kind.
All Flex Solutions Adds Talent to Flexible Circuit Facilities
11/14/2024 | All Flex SolutionsAll Flex Solutions is excited to welcome John Letourneau as our Director of Facilities and Maintenance at our Flexible Circuit Centers of Excellence!
Global PCB Connections: A Technical Overview of Long-flex Printed Circuit Boards
11/14/2024 | Jerome Larez -- Column: Global PCB ConnectionsFlex printed circuit boards are an essential advancement in the electronics industry, enabling the development of flexible, lightweight, and durable electronic designs. As technology has evolved, long-flex PCBs have emerged as a key component in applications requiring extended or intricate routing paths. Because of their use in automotive, commercial, and medical devices, designers are becoming more comfortable designing PCBs with this technology. This column will explore their attributes and role in modern products. I will also offer some essential tips for designing with manufacturability in mind.