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Components in Electronics


What are the options?
Balancing component count with space constraints. Tenoflex compares the odds.

The old adage "time is money" is relevant to every industry sector. Additionally for many industries, including electronics circuit designers and manufacturers, "mass is money". Even at the most fundamental level, using more space usually means using more material, achieving less through put and incurring higher costs in your production process. Without a change in the materials used, it is generally correct that the greater the size the greater the weight and potentially the higher the risk of suffering performance issues such as premature mechanical failure, eletrical interference within the unit, adverse thermal effects and possible degradation of signal performance due to any combination of these.

It is not surprising therefore PCB designers are always striving to reduce circuit size and increase component packaging densities.

PCB designers and manufacturers are constantly pushing the capability boundaries in the quest for higher layer count, micro-via interconnections, finer tracks and spaces. Equally, component suppliers are being driven to produce ever smaller footprint devices. One area, however, which remains a challenge is the requirement for low mass, high density interconnection between Printed Circuit Boards (PCB's).

The Options
Currently, the following options are those generally utilised to meet this challenge;

These options are typical examples of the available technology frequently used. Each option has its relative performance merits and cost equation. Often there is a need to balance cost against the essential requirements of performance, reliability and physical space constraints. At one end of the spectrum the "bought in" cost of a FRML circuit may appear unattractive but the "total installed" cost, the space saving and reliability benefits could make this an attractive option.

At the other end of the spectrum, a low cost "off the shelf" Flat Flex Cable of Ribbon Cable may appear attractive. Although reliability and the high labour content associated with their assembly, could make the "total installed" cost and performance of these two options less attractive. The use of connectors, either "stacked", or used in conjunction with standard wiring, could have cost, size and weight disadvantages. Also the higher level of soldered and/or mechanical interconnection points can adversely impact on performance and reliability.

The use of wiring harnesses in isolation to achieve board to board interconnection is low in material cost, high in labour assembly cost, variable in terms of electrical signal integrity and often sporadic in terms of mechanical integrity and performance. Clearly, the merits of each solution have cost, performnce and application specific relevance bit all have their place.

Standard SMI's
Standard Surface Mount Interconnects which are machine placeable offer an attractive low cost, low profile, low weight solution to this challenege. This solution has the added benefit of being ideally suited to higher volume applications. The standard range of SMI's designed by Teknoflex in the mid 1990's is a 0.93mm (0.0366") pitch PCB to PCB interconnect and is offered with 4 to 22 and 33 ways. They have been successfully utilised in broad ranging industry sectors and application including Medical, Automotive, Computing and Instrumentation around the World.

There are numerous benefits of using SMI's which include;

The standard SMI is supplied in industry standard 330mm, (13") diameter tape and reel (1500 per reel) enabling them to be machine placed using any standard SMT automated placement equipment.

High Density SMI
To further enhance the product range and provide an even greater level of interconnection density Teknoflex have developed a new High Density SMI. This latest development is a 0.5mm (0.0197") pitch jumper, further reducing the foot print compared to that of the standard product. This gives the designer the opportunity to increase packaging and interconnection density and the ability to utilise the area "release" to accommodate other components.

February 2008