Background

• Incorporated in 1991

• Focused on quick-turn and low to medium volume

• Currently owned by private equity firm (2007)

• Consistent sales growth trend over the past 20 years

• General strategy:

Continue to grow the company in revenue and profit by excelling within the existing product niche by servicing the

companies we serve with outstanding products and service.

Product Line Expansion

• Single and double sided flexible circuitry (1991)

• Multi-layer capabilities (1998)

• Maxi Flex™ (extended length) (2002)

• Surface mount and through hole assembly (2000-2010)

• Flexible heaters (2010)

• Fine line/Laser Imaging (2012)

Core Values

• Customer Focused

• We Find a Way

• Be Entrepreneurial

• People and Teamwork Matter

• Rapid Response

Operating Principle – Freedom Scale

• Level 5: Routine Reporting Only

• Keep supervisor informed via reports, updates

• Level 4: ACT, But Inform Supervisor Immediately

• Supervisor needs/wants continuous updates in order recover from an uncomfortable decision

• Level 3: “This Is The Problem: Here Is What I Recommend”

• Supervisor needs/wants to approve solutions to problems and issues before implementation

• Level 2: Ask What to Do

• Control is given to someone else

• Level 1: Wait To Be Told

Freedom Scale

Everyone operates at level 3 or higher. All are expected to take responsibility for own job and objectives

Our Offering

All Flex provides quick-turn prototype, short run and production of flexible printed circuits, flexible heaters

& assemblies.

We Believe In…

• Dedicated people

• Working fast

• Focused on the customer

Revenue History

Markets Served 2013

Why Flex Circuitry?

• Eliminate bulky wire harnesses Reduce weight and volume >70% in some cases

• Eliminate assembly errors Foolproof an assembly process Pre-tested by the fabricator

• Increase reliability and longevity

Particularly in applications with continuous movement (printers, disc drives, cell phones, etc)

• Increase signal integrity in controlled impedance applications

Low dielectric constant and planar conductors

• Achieve predictable noise control and eliminate crosstalk

Precise conductor patterns

Shielding

Why Flex Circuitry, cont’d?

• Improve thermal dissipation

Polyimide Tg

Heat sink attachment

• Provide an elegant design

Eliminate wires, connectors, and hardboards into a single well-engineered packaging solution.

• Reduce overall cost of ownership

Product Offering

• Single sided, double sided, multi-layer flexible circuitry

• Surface mount and leaded component assembly

• Flexible heaters

Custom & Stock

Polyimide

Silicone

Combination heater and flex circuit constructions

• Rigid-flex

• Extended length flex circuits (Maxi Flex®)

• Thick copper, power distribution boards and unsupported copper tabs

• Polyimide and polyester and other dielectrics

• Adhesive-based and adhesiveless circuit constructions

Facility Information

15,000 sq ft circuit fabrication in

Northfield, MN

20,000 sq ft finishing operation in

Bloomington, MN

5,000 sq ft fabrication and admin in

Northfield, MN

25% expansion to Northfield

facility 2015

Quality Fabrication and Verification

• Imaging

• Coverlay tacking

• Soldermask application

Clean Room Processing

Capital equipment investment for

quick-turn and serial production work

100% Automated Optical

Inspection

Quick Response Equipment

• Optical punching for ZIF connector precision

• Rule dies and hard tools for circuit cutline

• Numerical control drill and route for plated thru vias and tooling holes

• Software driven tooling generated from CAD files

• Short cycle time and simple modification

Quick Response Equipment

Laser Direct Imaging

In-House Precision Design

Populated Board AOI

Maxi Flex®

• Trademark name for All Flex “extended length” flexible circuits

• Custom imaging equipment allows fabrication of continuous circuitry

• Parts in excess of 40 feet have been produced

Value Added and Component Assembly

Mixed Form-Factor Assembly

Selective Reflow Soldering

SMT Component Placement

Solder Paste Printer

• Surface mount components to 0204

• Vision placement accuracy to .001”

• Fine pitch capability to .5 mm pitch

• Leaded devices

• RoHS compliant assembly

Circuit Finishing

Hand Assembly and Soldering

Nomenclature Printing

Flying Probe Electrical Test

• Digitally controlled nomenclature printing for legend and serialization

• Low volume and high volume electrical test capability

• Microscopic soldering for precision, quality and low volume

• Assembly of components to meet J-STD001-C

• Rigid carrier panels for automated assembly

• Rigid, polyimide, and aluminum stiffeners

• Tactile dome assembly

• Pressure sensitive adhesives

• Heat sinks

• Conformal coating

• Connector potting

• Ionic testing

• Custom packaging

• Design and reverse engineering

• Heater design to thermal output requirement

Value Added Capabilities

Sales & Marketing

• 400 active customers

• Largest customer is less than 5% of revenue

• Average 140 new customers/year

• 10% average annual sales growth in last 4 years

Delivery

Standard lead times:

• Single and double sided circuits @ 2-3 weeks

• Multilayer circuits at 3-4 weeks

• Component assembly +1 week

• Flexible heater circuits 2–3 weeks

• Expedited deliveries possible

Quality Certifications and Systems

• Full offering of RoHS surface coatings

• MIL-P50884E Qualified

• ITAR Registered

• JCP Certified

• ISO 9001:2008 Certified

• Built to Requirements of IPC 6013

• UL Recognized

• IPC 610 Certified Solderers

• AS91000 Rev C Aerospace Quality Certification

All Flex Jump Start™

New Part Number Launch Process

1. 24 Hour Response Time (quotations, questions, and customer service feedback)

2. “Flexize” the design for product reliability and manufacturability3. File review with customer before fabrication4. All part numbers set up for serial production

• No change in processes between prototype and serial production • No additional tooling required

5. Compressed fabrication cycle time6. Formal engineering design review for 100% of parts7. First article inspection8. Shipment tracking sent to customer 9. Post fabrication review process 10. Customer surveys to capture feedback, identify improvements, and

measure satisfaction

Information & Requests Online

• Technical resources

• Blogs/updates

• Design manual

• Requests for RFQ, samples, and design consultations

• Industry references

Contact Us

• www.allflexinc.com

• information@allflexinc.com

• 877-663-7162

• 1705 Cannon Lane, Northfield, MN 55057

Technology and Applications

Why Flex Circuitry?

• Eliminate bulky wire harnesses• Reduce weight and volume >70% in some cases

• Eliminate assembly errors• Foolproof an assembly process • Pre-tested by the fabricator

• Increase reliability and longevity

• Often adopted in applications with continuous movement (printers, disc drives, cell phones, etc)

• Pre-test circuits and assemblies

• Increase signal integrity in controlled impedance applications

• Low dielectric constant and planar conductors

• Achieve predictable noise control and eliminate crosstalk

• Precise conductor patterns

• Shielding

Design Categories

• Mechanical: If bent, what is the radius of the bend, the location of the bend, the degrees bent, the number of cycles, and what direction? Is there any mechanical abrasion possible? What packaging requirements exist? Are there thickness constraints? What is the connector method?

• Chemical: What chemical exposure will this see both during assembly and during operation?

• Thermal: What thermal exposure will the part see both during assembly and during operation?

• Electrical: How much current is being carried? Is there shielding or controlled impedance? Does the circuit rest against a conductive surface? What conductor width/spacing is needed? How many layers are required for the electrical routing?

• Dimensional: What is the overall size? Does the flat state flex fit well in a panel? What is the cutline to edge tolerance? What is the encirclement requirement? What is the soldermask registration requirement? Maximum or minimum thickness?

• Surface finish: How will this be connected to the rest of the world? What assembly processes will be employed?

• Reliability: What unique/critical reliability elements are there?

Types of Flex Circuits

• Single Layer

• Double Layer

• Multi Layer

• Rigid Flex

Single Layer

• Lowest cost

• Most flexible

• Most widely used

• Increased Circuit Density

• Shielding

Double Layer

• No rigid materials used in construction

• High density layouts

• Controlled impedance and shielding

Multilayer

Polyimide Film

• Most common flex circuit dielectric material: 95%+ of applications

• Excellent electrical properties

• Dielectric Constant @1MHz= 3.4

• Dielectric Strength=6000V@ 1 mil thickness

• Service Temperature -125C to 200C

• Commonly used with acrylic and epoxy adhesives

• Relatively high moisture absorption…prebake @105C for one hour generally recommended before soldering

• Available in adhesiveless base laminates

• Very good / good dimensional stability

• Standard thicknesses are 1,2,3 and 5 mils

• Often referred to by it’s Dupont trade name: Kapton®

Maximizing Flex Life

Guidelines:• Bend radius >10X material thickness• Rolled annealed copper is superior to electrodeposited

copper• Circuit nesting on panel has traces perpendicular to circuit

bend • Keep copper in the neutral axis of the circuit• Thinner copper and substrate are generally better• Bends near solder joints concentrate stress and should be

avoided• Compression of copper is better than tension• Possible to add strain relief (Ecobond epoxy) to edge of

stiffeners to distribute force concentration• Dynamic flex product should be tested in the

application…nuances of an individual design can dramatically affect actual performance

Key Cost Considerations

• Circuits per panel: Nesting density• Number of copper layers: Significant increase in price

when going from 2 copper layers to 3 or more• Trace width: Keep trace and space width as wide as

possible to avoid increased pricing for yield (.005”)• Surface finish: Avoid using more than one finish• Tolerance: Feature to feature tolerance determines

tooling and processing cost

Contact manufacturer in the early stages of design.

Design/Cost Considerations

Surface Dielectrics

• Coverlay - Dielectric Film and Adhesive

• Adhesive coated film bonded to circuit in a thermal press

• Requires hand placement of individually cut parts onto the surface of the flex circuit

• Limitations in feature size vs. photo imaged masks

• Used in dynamic flex applications to position copper in “neutral axis”

• Photo-Imagable - Photo Sensitive Polymer

• Photo defined dielectric image

• Applied with laminated, photosensitive film or flood coated liquid

• Excellent for high density component count circuit features

• Typical in rigid PCB design

Wire Harness Redesign

• Improved assembly time

• Reduced weight

• Less complex package

• Pretested as a subassembly

Shielding

• Retrofit EMI shielding application

• Used in remote reading of water meter

Sculptured Flex

• Usually made with single sided flex circuit design

• Integrated pins are made from thick copper and function as connector features

• Flexible region of circuit is surface etched to create thinner copper region

• Often used in high reliability jumper applications

• Connector pins can be bent or formed into right angle shapes

Single Ended Microstrip

Material Trace Width for Trace Width for Trace Width for Trace Width for

Thickness 50 ohms 50 ohms 75 ohms 75 ohms

Including Impedance Impedance Impedance Impedance Polyimide coverlay

Adhesive 1/2 oz copper 1 oz copper 1/2 oz copper 1 oz copper Adhesive

0.002 0.0036 0.0032 0.0015 >.001 Copper signal

0.003 0.0057 0.0053 0.0025 0.0013 Adhesive

0.004 0.0078 0.0074 0.0035 0.0028

0.005 0.0102 0.0096 0.0050 0.0041 Polyimide

0.006 0.0122 0.0117 0.0060 0.0050 Adhesive

0.007 0.0144 0.0139 0.0070 0.0060 Copper reference plane

0.008 0.0166 0.0161 0.0080 0.0068

0.009 0.0189 0.0184 0.0088 0.0085 Polyimide coverlay

0.010 0.0211 0.0206 0.0105 0.0095

High Speed and Controlled Impedance

Personal Communications/Mobile Applications

Application Requirements:

•Low cost to compete withstamped metal alternative

•Rapid time to marketachieved thru multiple designiterations within a singlepanel of circuits

•Precision alignment holes

•Low cost/high reliabilitypressure connection

•Single & double sidedcircuits

•Polyester and polyimidebased copper antennas

Application Requirements:

•Electroless Nickel/ImmersionGold (ENIG) surface forkeypad contacts andcomponent soldering

•Tactile domes are assembledas contact keypad switcheson flex

•Side key buttons areintegrated into singleflexcircuit design to eliminateconnectors and secondarysoldering process

• Antennas

• Flexible Circuit Keypads

• Flexible Circuits

Maxiflex™ Circuits and Heaters

• Sizes available beyond standard panel lengths (24”)• Circuits in excess of 40 feet long have been produced• Width limitation generally at 20”• Used in military, aerospace, medical and research

applications

Catheter Flex Circuits

• Available in single sided, double sided and multilayer constructions

• High Density Interconnect• Trace and Space at .003”

• Via sizes at .005”

• Widths of .020”

• Lengths of 60” and longer

Oversized Flexible Heaters

• Silicone Rubber Construction

• Used in Solar Panel Fabrication

• Temperature cycling between 80C and 150C

• Heater dimensions of 24” X 52”

Flexible Circuit Assembly

• Handle similar to rigid PCB

arrays

• Attach individual parts to a

custom fixture

• Extend FR4 stiffeners and

excise circuits post assembly

• Pre-cut but leave in array

Lighting Flex Circuits

• Compact profile for small enclosures

• Backside pressure sensitive adhesive for attachment to heat sinks for thermal management

• Some specialty materials available for enhanced heat distribution

• Colored (black and white) materials available for lighting applications

Flexible Heaters

Medical Device

• Pre-warm fluid

• Stabilizes samples for analysis

Etched Foil (Flexible) Heaters

Product Details

• Polyimide Film and Silicone Rubber Insulation

• Silicone heaters are higher temperature (200C+). Polyimide are thinner, more flexible and faster thermal response.

• Integration of RTD, sensors and other thermal control devices

• Extended length (>24”) possible with both constructions

• Stock Heaters available in a variety of sizes with 2-3 day delivery time

• Custom Design typically ship 2-3 weeks ARO

• Heater element design provided by All Flex to meet thermal specification

• Wide variety of foil alloys and thicknesses stocked to meet range of resistance requirements

• Heaters generally provided with soldered or welded wires with epoxy coating over connection junction

• Multi-Zone Heaters

Custom Heaters

Differing wattage areas

Bifilar heaters

Custom Heaters

Two different heater element widths interwoven within one pattern.

Profiled heaters

Custom Heaters

Heater pattern is tuned

into the overall system of

heat dissipation

Combination/hybrid heaters

Custom Heaters

• Flex circuit/heater combination

• Differing foils possible between top and bottom sides

• Plated through holes to electrically connect foil layers

Custom Heaters

• Airport runway lighting application

• Heater attached to prism

UL Certification

Custom Heaters

• Flame retardant construction

• Wire is attachment method is available for high temperature requirements

• Top of wire solder joint is covered

• Potting for polyimide heaters

• Silicone rubber patch for SR heaters

• Differing resistive foils

Assembly of heaters

Custom Heater Assemblies

Standard Heaters

• Stock Items for quick delivery

• Wires, pressure sensitive

adhesive included

• Polyimide and silicone rubber

constructions

• Variety of sizes, shapes and watt

densities

Flexible Heater Design Kit

• Excellent for initial evaluation

• Determine needed wattage before

ordering a custom heater

That’s All Folks…Smile!