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Single Side Flex PCBs

Single Sided Flexible Circuits
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What a Single Sided Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC) Entails:


A single-sided flexible printed circuit (1-layer flex circuit) is a type of flex circuit that features one layer of copper trace on a single substrate (commonly Polyimide), and a layer of Polyimide overlay is laminated to the copper trace, guaranteeing that only one side of the copper is exposed. Consequently, it only allows access to the copper trace from a single side, contrary to the dual access flex circuit which enables access from both the top and bottom sides of the flex circuit.


With only one layer of copper trace, it is also referred to as a 1-layer flexible printed circuit, 1-layer flexible circuit, or even 1-layer FPC, or 1L FPC.


This constitutes the most straightforward configuration of flex circuits and was also the most widely used flexible circuit board in the past. Owing to its thinnest thickness, 1-layer FPC is more flexible than other types of FPC, and this is one of the reasons why people transition from Rigid Boards to flexible ones.


The lead time is the shortest (it can be manufactured within 24 hours). As can be seen, the manufacturing process is comparatively simple. If you desire to replace wires/cables to reduce assembly challenges and prevent potential errors, the single-sided flex circuit is the ideal solution.
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Single Side Flexible Printed Circuits

1 Layer Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC) Stack Up

 

For the normal flex circuit, there’ll always be an adhesive layer between Polyimide and copper, and the thickness is similar to Polyimide, so people will choose to “ignore” that layer and you will not see it most of time. But for better understanding, we will list it bellowing:

1 Layer Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC) Stack Up

If you want a thinner thickness and more flexibility, then an adhesiveness base material will be your choice. There’s no adhesive /glue between copper and Polyimide, so the total FPC thickness will be thinner than the same FPC with the same copper and Polyimide thickness. See stack up bellowing: (0.11mm VS 0.13mm)

polyimide and copper

And the thinnest thickness of 1 layer flex circuit we can make is 0.06mm. See details:

There’s various stack up combination for 1 layer FPC, click to download the basic stack up of flexible circuits in our company.
Normal Stack Up: 
Adhesiveless Stack Up: 
In normal stack up, adhesive layer will be hided so that customer can focused on other more important elements. Bellowing is two stack up /layer up and the only different is Coverlay material: One is Polyimide (the most popular one) and another is soldermask oil

One is Polyimide

another is soldermask oil

(Solder mask Type - Single-Sided Flex PCB)

Application: 

Here are the major application of 1 layer flex circuit, but not limited to:

  1. Optical Pick-up for A/V & Computer (or CDP & DVDP)

  2. Digital Camera

  3. Capstan Motor for Camcoder & VCR

  4. Vibration Motor for Mobile Phone

  5. Stepping Motor

  6. Membrane switch 

  7. Flexible wire cable

  8. Static application

  9. Printer

  10. Robot (arms)

  11. Antenna



Manufacturing process:

 For Single-Sided Flex PCB, here are the basic manufacturing processes following up IPC 6013 standard  See more details, please check Flex Circuit Manufacturing

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 You can contact us to see more pictures of single sided flex circuit board to see how it can be useful for your application. Welcome to contact us to see more information about single side Flexible circuit board.

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