Download - Customer corp presentation rev 02 23 15
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
• 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!