June 11, 2009 -- OKI Electric Cable has developed an ultra thin, ultra long flexible printed circuit (FPC) that achieves a width of 2 mm, lengths up to 3 m, and a wiring pitch of 180-microns, for over twice the density of conventional thin cables.
"This new FPC converges OKI Electric Cable's core technologies to make FPCs that are ultra thin, highly flexible, long and that enables high-speed data transferring. This combination enables customers to have flexibility when designing products," comments Takashi Hattori, president of OKI Electric Cable. "Because of these characteristics, this FPC expands the applications to microscopes, robots, and to applications for sensors used in medical and industrial equipment."
The company says the new FPC is designed to solve a problem that has plagued conventional thin wire cables; namely, that the thinner the cable, the more complex the harness-making process becomes, and the greater the chance of incorrect wiring. In addition, says OKI, the FPC can more easily mount components with lighter, thinner and more flexible wiring, which could not be done with existing thin cables. According to the company, the new product will enable easier fabrication of functional and modular devices employing surface mounting of low profile connectors and component packaging such as for LEDs and CCDs [charged coupled devices].
10-pin wiring can be accomplished with a single 2mm-width FPC, without incurring the tangles and kinks that can occur with normal thin cables; with the FPC, such wiring can be as thin as 50 microns. When comparing the flexibility of FPCs to other wiring materials, through an IPC bending test, the new FPC was also able to achieve a bending spec of over 100 million times (1.5R), according to OKI.
Suitable for a range of applications including industrial and electronic equipment, the 2-mm FPC is offered with a one or two-sided structure. For the two-sided structure, impedance matching can be done upon customer request, which can enable the FPC to be used as a thin coaxial cable for transferring image data at high speeds.
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