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Defence Electronics


Flexible and Flex Rigid Multilayer circuit technology was adopted by the global defence industries many years ago as a highly innovative and adaptable interconnection solution. The versatile nature of this technology has resulted in its application in wide ranging equipment, be it on land, sea or air, and from communication equipment to sophisticated missile systems.

Why Flex Circuitry?
Low mass, high packaging densities, reliability, repeatability and attractive electrical characteristics, serviceability and reduced “overall cost of ownership” are some of the key benefits of flexible circuitry which have made this technology the interconnection solution of choice for most design engineers. The complexity of all items of defence equipment is driving higher levels of system performance and capability in smaller and lighter overall packages.

Flexible circuits offer a multitude of benefits to designers of defence equipment. These include:

There is a diverse range of Flexible Circuit Technologies available to the design engineer each of which offers its own unique benefits. Apart from the more obvious and globally applied technologies of single and double sided Flexible Circuitry the designer can utilise the individually unique attributes of Sculptured, Flex Rigid Multilayer and Regal Flex Circuit technologies. Differentiated “Pinflex” and novel “Surface Mount Interconnects” (SMIs) are other examples of well proven, widely adopted, techniques for achieving, or being part of, a total interconnection solution.

Sculptured Circuits are widely, but not exclusively, utilised in applications where high power is a feature. Sculptured Circuits are produced using thicker copper, typically 250 micron, and as the name implies are “chemically” sculptured. This enables circuits to be produced which have thicker copper where there is a high current carrying requirement, or where “unsupported fingers” or “Raised Contact Points” (RCP`s) are a feature of the design whilst other parts of the circuit can have thinner copper in order to enhance flexibility and formability.

“Pinflex” is a technology involving the high temperature silver brazing of pins into Flexible Circuits for “through hole” insertion and soldering into PCB`s as a means of interconnecting two or more Boards or providing a demountable “flying tail”. This technology has proven to be very popular in Aerospace and Defence applications due to its high reliability, robustness and multiple de-solder and re-solder capability.

Surface Mount Interconnects (SMI's) are low cost, auto assemble, surface mount, board to board Interconnectors. They are supplied in industry standard 330mm reels each normally containing 1,500 SMI`s and can be “picked and placed” using any modern surface mount assembly machine and reflowed with all other surface mount devices.

Regal Flex Technology is a unique, high integrity, Flex Rigid Multilayer construction which eliminates the phenomena of “barrel cracking” which can occur during the application of heat to a conventionally constructed Flex Rigid Multilayer. This high reliability is achieved by ensuring that offending materials, including certain adhesives, are absent in the “multilayered” sections of the circuit where component attachment (soldering) is typically required.

Component Assembly
A large percentage of flexible circuits produced nowadays have components assembled directly to the flexible circuit itself or to “rigidised” areas of the circuit. All types of components typically found on rigid circuit board assemblies will be found on Flexible or Flex Rigid Multilayer Circuits. Surface Mount Components, Through Hole Components, Connectors, Semiconductors and BGA`a are typical examples. It is evident that many items of equipment for Defence and Aerospace applications operate in hostile environments where they are subjected to high levels of stress, vibration and temperature extremes and the design techniques employed in ensuring that the circuit and locations for subsequent component assembly are considered in great detail during this process.

By offering a high level of adaptability to the designer Flexible Circuitry has become the preferred interconnection and packaging solution.

Defence and Aerospace Applications
The range of defence and aerospace applications in which Flexible Circuitry is employed is far too extensive to be covered in this article but typical examples include:

Growth Areas
A rapidly expanding growth area for Flexible Circuitry in the defence and aerospace industry is “Unmanned Vehicles” whether on land, the sea or in the air. The immediate benefits of using flex within these vehicles include space and weight saving, reliability of the interconnection system, in-situ serviceability and robustness.

Another key growth area is that of man portable devices. The modern soldier is provided with an increasing array of vital equipment for communication, location, surveillance, survival and target recognition, etc, etc, all of which needs to be packaged and powered with the resultant implications associated with weight and bulk.

A soldier may be required to carry up to 130 pounds of such equipment and weapons. By using flexible circuits instead of cable harnesses a reduction of approximately 80% in weight can be realised which coupled with the additional benefits of space saving and high reliability makes the technology of Flexible Circuitry a very compelling option.

August 2009