The Performance-enhancing Benefits of Flexible Circuit Technology

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Flexible circuits have been around much longer than most folks realize. My friend, Dr. Ken Gilleo, unquestionably a technology forensics genius, unearthed a British patent issued to Albert Hansen of Germany just after the turn of the last century (Figure 1), which we can easily recognize today as an ancestral flexible circuit. We owe his creativity a great deal of credit for laying the foundation for countless electronic products in use today that employ flex circuits.

Figure 1: British Patent 4,681 issued in 1903 to prescient German inventor Albert Hansen, shows a device that is conceptually and functionally indistinguishable from basic flex circuits of today.

Other investigators followed with novel ideas for using flexible circuits for myriad products over the ensuing decades. Today, flexible circuits are ubiquitous, and we own many more flexible circuits than we can imagine, as they now facilitate the manufacture and enhance the performance of a substantial percentage of products on the market, especially personal electronics.

These indispensable electronic interconnection devices are commonly made using either thin polyimide, polyester, and other thin dielectric films, allowing them to be bent, folded, twisted, and shaped, and even stretched to conform to complex geometries while maintaining reliable electrical connectivity and, perhaps most importantly, performance. It is worth noting that includes any material made thin enough, including those traditionally seen as brittle, such as glass and silicon (Figure 2). Now, let’s explore their usefulness.

 To continue reading this article, which originally appeared in the January 2026 edition of I-Connect007 Magazine, click here.