FCT Leverages Flex Design and Total Build Solutions to Drive Innovation

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

What’s hot in flexible circuits right now? At PCB West, I spoke with Ben Savage, business development manager at Flexible Circuit Technologies (FCT), about their flex design services and end-markets where FCT sees the most flex activity. We also discussed the company’s focus on providing supply chain resiliency, as well as the constant search for new flex engineers. If you’re looking for a new opportunity in flexible circuits, FCT is hiring.

Marcy LaRont: Ben, it’s great to speak with you. Tell us about FCT’s design services.

Ben Savage: Great to speak with you, Marcy. In manufacturing, it's very important to begin with the end in mind. That means thinking about the end-level device, its system, and function. For flex, that includes whether it is a static or dynamic flex (moving repeatedly), what the temperature will be, whether there is a waterproofing requirement, Class 1, 2, or 3, and whether it is a medical, vehicle, or consumer application. These are all very important considerations. Volumes and lead times are important considerations, as well as how long it is meant to be in service and in operation, and how many bend cycles it is expected to have.

LaRont: It sounds like you spend a lot of time communicating with your customers.

Savage: We do, and we like to start the conversation with the customer as early as possible. Many of our engineers have been focused on flex for 30–40 years, so they've seen what works and what doesn't work. A lot of times, it's just as important to understand what doesn't work, as what does work. This can prevent failures, improve yields, improve costs, and minimize revision spins. With many customers, we'll save them revisions, improve their time to market, and ultimately, we save them unexpected failures simply because of our experience.

LaRont: About a year ago, I talked to Troy Koopman, one of the co-founders, and Ray Cottrell, who had just joined the company, about your total solutions—EMS and box build capabilities. What does that area look like today?

Savage: It's gone fantastically. The assembly considerations for flex and rigid-flex circuits are very niche. A lot of contract manufacturers and EMS providers don't understand all the handling requirements and special considerations when assembling FPCAs. Many don't understand how to handle rails, arrays, reflow considerations, or the general FPC assembly requirements. With FCT's dedicated focus on flex and rigid-flex assembly and integration, we achieve significantly higher yields and faster throughput, with minimal waste. Of course, we can also handle rigid PCBA assembly as well, as that's easier than flex circuit assembly. We also build plastics and membrane switches which often are needed in addition to FPCs.

LaRont: That makes a lot of sense. Where are you seeing the highest demand right now in the flex space?

Savage: We’re seeing a lot of activity in medical and EV. We also see many new ideas developing in the IoT space. When we're working with design labs, we never know what we'll see.

We're working with all the top medical OEMs on catheter circuits. In the automotive space, we design, fabricate, and assemble many EV (electric vehicle) battery heaters and battery monitoring systems. Flexible circuits are popular for both of those applications. Heaters and catheters are two of the fastest-growing uses for flexible circuits.

LaRont: Do FCT’s solutions provide solid benefits for your customers regarding lead times and overall cost to manufacture? 

Savage: Yes, absolutely. We don't play in the aerospace and defense segment whenever ITAR is required. The recent spike in A&D demand appears to have significantly increased the lead times for many domestic fabricators. Since we're not burdened with that, we can offer standard lead times of four weeks for flex and two weeks for assembly. We can be even faster if there is an important delivery or critical prototype goal to hit. 

LaRont: That’s great. What kind of volumes is FCT able to do? 

Savage: Honestly, we can go from a quantity of one—that's our MOQ—up to tens of millions.

LaRont: Ben, you mentioned that FCT is hiring. Tell us about your hiring process. I know there are fewer engineers with experience in flex compared to the rigid board side.

Savage: That’s right. Many of our engineers are 30- and 40-year industry veterans. When we hire now, we can start with a young engineer and help them progress, by starting with simpler CAD jobs. If we hire, for instance, someone with five to 10 years of experience, we can often get them to work on designing heaters or other FPCs much sooner. My job in business development is to keep our engineers, PMs (and factory) busy. FCT has an excellent team, but I'm always looking for more capacity in those two arenas. 

LaRont: We'll definitely keep our eyes and ears open. Do you have anything additional you would like to share?  

Savage: Yes, I'd like to point out that our new flexible circuit design guide is published on our website www.flexiblecircuits.com. It's a completely free resource for everyone (to download), not just for our existing customers. I promise we won't spam you or send you anything you do not ask for. It is truly a free resource that we're pleased to share with everyone. Just reach out, and we’ll be happy to have a discussion to help save you some time and money and improve the reliability of your flex and rigid-flex circuit applications.

LaRont: Thank you, Ben. It's always a pleasure to catch up with FCT. 

Savage: Thank you so much, Marcy. It's my pleasure.