MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Minco has released its Flex Circuits Design Kit for engineers wishing to incorporate flex circuitry in their projects.
  
The kit includes a start-up guide that lists design guidelines, specifications and manufacturing procedures, illustrations and a glossary of commonly used terms. A sample case holds over 25 pieces of raw material and circuit examples.
 
“Although flex circuits are made to bend, most field failures occur as a result of these bending or flexing operations,” said Mark Finstad, principle application engineer for the flex circuits division. “To avoid failures, a designer must factor in all parameters that involve bending and flexing including bend radii, dielectric thickness and type, foil weight, copper plating, number of layers, and number of flexures.”
 
The kit also comes with an offer for a free mechanical sample of your design made with actual flex circuit stack-up materials. A mechanical sample ensures that a flex circuit is the right size and shape and is properly constructed for its environmental interfaces, which will help avoid installation problems, or latent mechanical issues that could cause failures.