Flexible and Advanced Circuit Substrate Materials

Solderable Flexible Circuit Materials For Fine-Pitch And Super-Fine Pitch Flexible Circuit Applications

AI Technology has developed a solderable, organic copper-clad laminate flexible circuit substrate materials that can be used at temperatures as high as 300°C. The standard flexible circuit material uses 1 oz copper on this non-polyimide proprietary molecularly flexible material for a total 3-mil thickness as flexible circuit substrate. These flexible circuit materials are available with 1/4 or 3/8-oz copper for super fine-pitch flexible circuit applications of less than 1-mil line/spacing and via.

COUPLER™ Flexible Circuit Material Characteristics:

• Proprietary organic copper-clad laminate material with low dielectric constant, 3.0 @ 1 KHz with less than 0.01 dielectric loss and high insulation strength (>1000VDC/3-mil thickness).
• Non-silicone and non-contaminating molecularly flexible dielectric layer.
• Withstands chemical etching and wet chemical treatments for all PWB/PCB processes.
• Maintains outstanding flexibility even at temperatures of as low as 40°C.
• Eliminates traditional polyimide flexible circuit material “measling” and other moisture induced degradation and reliability problems as usually associated with polyimide based circuit boards.
• Outstanding moisture resistance, less than 0.3%, while maintaining high electrical and mechanical performance.
• UL-94-V0 fire-retardant rating.
• Same circuit density and design rules as traditional FR-4 and BT board.
• Lower temperature multi-layer flexible circuit processing from as low as 125°C.
• Solderable flexible circuit applications at 50% of the traditional polyimide flexible circuit material substrate cost.

Applications:

• Organic copper-clad laminate substrate flexible circuit materials to replace polyimide and PTFE.
• Flex tape for area-array flexible circuit and interposer substrate.
• Flip-chip on flex with superfine pitches.
• Directly solderable flat and flexible jumpers.
• Flat and flexible cabling that can be used in class
• Solderable membrane switches and circuits.
• Roll-to-roll or panel processing.
• Available in rolls of various lengths and width.

AIT COUPLER™ organic copper-clad laminate flexible circuit substrate and flexible circuit pre-preg material panels can be handled in exactly the same method and infrastructure as commonly used in standard PWB and flex circuit.

1. Panel & Roll Material Handling

• COOL-CLAD™ and COUPLER™ organic copper-clad laminate flexible circuit substrates can be stored in ambient conditions for at least 12 months.
• COUPLER™ flexible circuit pre-preg material can be stored in ambient conditions for at least 6 months.

2. Panel Prep

• Tooling/Registration
• Scrubbing
• Chemical Cleaning
• Base Metal Protection

3. Imaging

• Dry Film Application
• Wet Film Application
• Screened Image Application

4. Wet Chemistry Processing

• Etching
• Stripping
• Post Etch/Strip Clean

5. Solder Mask Application

• Screen, Spray or Curtin Coat
• Thermal Solder Mask
• UV Cured Solder Mask

6. Second Step Drill or Punch

• Punch
• Drill
• 7. Finishing Operation
• HASL
• OSP
• Tin
• Ni/Au

8. Finishing Fabrication

• Route
• Score
• Punch

For more information and recommendation assistance, please contact AIT sales and engineering:

AIT technical sales and service department can also be reached at: 1-609-799-9388 and Fax: 609-799-9308