Background

Our customer, a leading provider of advanced MEMS-based accelerometers for rugged and hostile environments, had tried but failed to create a circuit that could continuously operate at +125°C. The customer hadn’t considered flex circuits because the application didn’t specifically call for flexibility. Nevertheless, because we are accustomed to working with tight tolerances on a variety of surfaces, we accepted the challenge.

Services & Solutions

After evaluating our customer’s design specifications, we knew that the inherent capabilities of flexible printed circuits and the ultra-tight tolerances of our laser micromachining system would reveal a way of refining the design and possibly offer process improvements to reduce assembly time during manufacturing.

Our engineering team brainstormed and then proposed a stackup flex circuit. We knew it would work, but because we anticipated customer skepticism, we manufactured a small run of the circuits.

Results

Try as they might, our customer could not get the circuit to fail at any temperature. The resulting circuit could continuously operate +150°C, and we found ways to significantly reduce manufacturing costs, saving the customer a great deal of money.